As Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to visit the United Arab Emirates, human rights advocates are calling on his government to do more to stop the flow of weapons from the United Arab Emirates to a militia in Sudan that is committing heinous acts of ethnic violence.
While the UAE insists it is not arming the Rapid Support Forces militia, numerous human rights groups say they believe planes meant to transport humanitarian aid from the UAE to Sudan are regularly delivering weapons.
Some groups say they believe these shipments include Canadian-made weapons.
“Governments like Canada have an opportunity to show what the values we talk so loudly about these days are and what they really mean when put to the test,” said World Vision Canada policy director Martin Fischer.
“Canadian-made weapons and components are fueling the conflict in Sudan. And it’s really not enough for the government to say the existing arms export regime is world-class, when the reality shows it is very different.”
Carney said on October 16 that he will “travel to the United Arab Emirates on his way to the G20 summit,” which will take place on November 22.
The civil war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces broke out in April 2023. The paramilitary FAR succeeded the Janjaweed militia that carried out the first genocide in Darfur between 2003 and 2005.
Both parties in the conflict have blocked the entry of humanitarian aid. The war has put more than 30 million people in desperate need of help, including 16 million children.
“That’s more than a quarter of Canada’s population, in terms of children who need some type of assistance,” Fischer said.
It has also created the world’s largest displacement crisis, counting those displaced within Sudan and refugees in neighboring countries.
The UAE government has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF, accusations it has strenuously denied, despite the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan finding these reports “credible”.
In its final days in office in January, US President Joe Biden’s administration said the RSF was committing a new genocide in the Darfur region. Canada has not described the violence as genocide.
The United States imposed sanctions on parties in Sudan and companies in the United Arab Emirates accused of providing weapons to militants with government support.
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In the last month there have been atrocious acts of violence. The World Health Organization reported that RSF attacked a hospital in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher on October 28, killing hundreds of patients and kidnapping several health workers.
Videos posted online showed hospital rooms riddled with bullet holes.
The Yale Humanitarian Research Laboratory last week reported on satellite images that it says show pools of blood in el-Fasher, suggesting mass killings in multiple locations. Online videos show dozens of people killed by militia members.
“Canada is horrified by the attacks in El Fasher and condemns the mass killing of more than 2,000 civilians,” Foreign Minister Anita Anand posted on Platform X on October 28.
“We urge all parties to respect international law, protect civilians and allow the unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid immediately.”
Anand has said he plans to visit the Gulf region in early 2026.
Fischer said ethnic violence is generating horrible stories.
“They face armed checkpoints, extortion, looting and truly disturbing and alarming reports of sexual violence along their escape routes, if they can escape at all,” he said.
He argues that Ottawa should work with its allies to pressure both sides to allow aid in and consider increasing its own aid contribution.
Ottawa has already pledged $103 million in aid to Sudan since the conflict began.
Fischer also said Canada should tighten its laws to ensure export permits do not allow Canadian weapons to be diverted to Sudan. Canadian companies exported $7 million worth of weapons to the United Arab Emirates last year.
“There is room, and it really is necessary, to clean our own house,” he said.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East has called on Ottawa to stop all arms exports to the United Arab Emirates to prevent their diversion to Sudan, and to investigate whether that is already happening.
The group notes numerous reports that weapons deployed in the conflict were supplied by Streit Group, a company founded in Canada that appears to have relocated to the United Arab Emirates. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Sudanese Canadian groups have been calling on Canada for months to impose more sanctions and consider putting RSF on the terrorism list. Some cited those calls in testimony Monday before the House international human rights subcommittee.
McGill University professor Jon Unruh also testified that the UAE is receiving “war gold” from Darfur in exchange for arming the RSF, and could eventually be seeking land for agriculture.
“There is a very important economic aspect to this,” he said, adding that Canada could leverage its membership in the OECD group of mostly wealthy countries to pressure the United Arab Emirates to comply with the group’s 2016 policy on minerals coming from conflict zones.
“Canada can exert coercive pressure on the UAE… to try to cut off the supply of gold from Darfur to the UAE, thereby supplying weaponry to the RSF,” he said.
Other committee witnesses testified that the Sudanese Armed Forces are also committing human rights abuses and may be receiving weapons from Iran and Muslim Brotherhood affiliates.
Doctors Without Borders says it is caring for both babies and adults with acute malnutrition. The group’s representative in Canada, Michael Lawson, testified that this is unusual and indicates a widespread siege.
Lawson said patients at the group’s hospital in the town of Tawila have reported shocking cases of sexual violence and torture.
NDP MP Heather McPherson last week urged Canada to pressure the United Arab Emirates to stop supporting the RSF and support international investigations.
“Canada’s inaction has helped fuel these war crimes, and it must stop now,” he wrote in a news release. “We have blood on our hands and Canada must take immediate steps that it has so far refused to take.”
The federal government has frequently described the United Arab Emirates as a potential investment partner in artificial intelligence.
When asked last Thursday, Anand did not say whether he had raised concerns about Sudan with his UAE counterparts. Instead, he touted the strength of Canada’s arms export controls.
“That process is carried out under globally recognized legislation… and I will say that any violation of that statute is closely monitored and enforced,” he said in Parliament.
“We take it very seriously and that’s the job I asked my department to do,” he said.
Anand’s office said the work includes examining claims about Canadian weapons arriving in Sudan.
