UK faces Sudanese questions over £87m UAE military licences

Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council adviser Amjad Farid questioned on Oct. 19 Britain’s £87 million in 2024 military-equipment export licences to the UAE, Sudan News Agency reported via AllAfrica.

Farid said the value of British licences under Category ML10 rose from £4 million in 2023 to £87 million in 2024, before easing to £77 million in 2025.

Category ML10 covers aircraft, drones, engines, launch platforms and control equipment, according to the SNA report. Farid tied the figures to Britain’s call at the latest UN Security Council meeting to publish a Darfur Panel of Experts report and send it to the council’s sanctions committee.

Farid said Kate Foster, Britain’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, called for the report’s publication and for more pressure on those financing and enabling Sudan’s war. He said she also referred to advanced drone capabilities in Sudan being financed, moved and supported through external networks.

Farid said portions of the experts’ report had leaked and included a section on alleged Emirati support for the Rapid Support Forces militia. He said the document was given to Security Council members on July 13 and that Emirati pressure to block its release had continued since then.

“Or will it continue to call for an end to arms flows into Sudan while authorising exports to the very country that multiple reports and investigations accuse of fuelling those flows?” Farid asked, referring to Britain.

The SNA account did not include responses from British or UAE authorities. It also did not publish the experts’ report, and the allegations about Emirati support for the RSF remain attributed to Farid and to reports he cited.

Farid said a previous Panel of Experts report had concluded that evidence on alleged Emirati support and arms supplies to the RSF had a degree of credibility.

Source: news-agency report, Sudan News Agency via AllAfrica, Oct. 19.