ICJ Dismisses Sudan’s Case Against UAE of Arming Militias

May 6, 2025

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday dismissed Sudan's case accusing the United Arab Emirates of genocide in Darfur by supplying weapons to paramilitary forces. The top court said that it lacked jurisdiction.

(3 Minutes Read)

The court agreed with the UAE’s arguments, rejected Sudan’s request for emergency measures, and ordered the case be removed from its docket.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday dismissed Sudan’s case accusing the United Arab Emirates of genocide in Darfur by supplying weapons to paramilitary forces. The top court said that it lacked jurisdiction.

Sudan had argued before the U.N.’s top court last month that the UAE was violating the Genocide Convention by supporting paramilitary forces in Darfur. However, the UAE said the case should be dismissed due to a lack of jurisdiction. The court agreed with the UAE’s arguments, rejected Sudan’s request for emergency measures, and ordered the case be removed from its docket.

The UAE hailed it as a legal victory and said that the allegations are baseless. By a vote of 14-to-two, the court threw out Sudan’s request for emergency measures to prevent genocidal acts against the Masalit tribe, which has been the focus of intense, ethnically based attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militias. Sudan accused the UAE of arming and funding the rebel paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the deadly Sudanese civil war.

In March, Sudan asked the International Court of Justice for several orders, known as provisional measures, including telling the UAE to do all it could to prevent the killings and other crimes targeting the Masalit people. The UAE argued the court had no jurisdiction.

Sudan descended into a deadly conflict in mid-April 2023 when long-simmering tensions between its military and rival paramilitary forces broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions. Both the Rapid Support Forces and Sudan’s military have been accused of abuses.

The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, which is also a U.S. ally, has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF, something it has strenuously denied despite evidence to the contrary.