UAE’s PR Blitz on Sudan: Too Little, Too Late

The UAE’s media campaign on Sudan faces scrutiny as investigations link Dubai-based firms to RSF conflict-gold networks, raising questions of accountability and reform (image source)

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched a well-funded media campaign including diplomatic statements, paid social-media posts and high-profile outreach to recast its role in the conflict in Sudan as primarily humanitarian. Yet that messaging is colliding with increasingly detailed investigative findings tying Dubai-based firms and markets to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the conflict-gold trade fueling Sudan’s war economy.

On the ground in Darfur, survivors and aid workers say no amount of polished videos can erase what they have seen. After the fall of El-Fasher, anti-government forces besieged the city, reportedly killing hundreds and forcing thousands to flee in desperation. One displaced mother told aid workers she had to leave with only the clothes on her back after men with guns stormed her compound. Local hospitals were overwhelmed, and neighbourhoods were emptied in the face of the violence. “The tragedy unfolding in El-Fasher is not a surprise; it is the direct result of the international community’s inaction,” said Sudan’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva.

UAE alleged drone strikes on Port Sudan (image source)

Behind the humanitarian rhetoric, investigative groups trace a chilling second story: a sprawling network of companies based in the UAE helping the RSF monetize gold, deliver weapons and support military operations. The think-tank The Sentry reports that businessmen tied to the RSF set up jewellery firms, consultancies and trading houses in Dubai to facilitate the export of smuggled gold from Darfur and western Sudan, turn it into cash and invest in the war effort. One case cited by The Sentry involved a Dubai-based firm, Aoun Commercial Brokers, linked to the RSF’s procurement of hundreds of “technicals”—pickup trucks mounted with machine-guns—through UAE trade networks.

While the UAE denies direct military backing of the RSF, and emphasises that its media campaign highlights humanitarian assistance and calls for cease-fires, critics say the timing and substance of the campaign reveal diversion rather than reform. The UAE’s narrative glosses over the trade-and-conflict link, sidestepping core allegations of complicity in war-economy financing even as public scrutiny expands.

The campaign’s effectiveness is undermined by mounting data: According to Swiss-based NGO Swissaid, the UAE imported nearly 90% of Sudan’s official gold exports in the first half of 2025, while illicit exports largely controlled by armed groups like the RSF may be four times larger. Journalists and investigators now ask two critical questions: Will the UAE conduct transparent audits of gold-import flows and corporate registrations linked to conflict gold? And will international enforcement bodies—the United Nations, EU and US sanction authorities—trace those flows and hold enablers to account?

Until these questions are addressed, the UAE’s media blitz threatens to be remembered not as a shift in policy but as damage control. Meanwhile, the people of Darfur continue to suffer, their lives and future overshadowed by financial networks and political manoeuvres. The core challenge remains: persuasive communications cannot erase the human cost, nor the business networks that sustain conflict. For Sudan’s civilians, more than words are required—accountability and reform are essential.