Colin Sheridan: Power enables atrocity in Sudan — and Ireland must call it out
Displaced Sudanese who fled el-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), rest near the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region this week. The UN and independent groups now talk openly of mass atrocities, perhaps even crimes against humanity there. Photo: STR/AFP via Getty Images
In the crowded ledger of global humanitarian disasters, the crisis in Sudan has quietly crept to the top. For the Irish reader accustomed to hearing of genocide in Gaza or war in Ukraine, this disaster may feel even more remote.
But its scale, and the integrity of Ireland’s humanitarian values, demand we pay attention. What is happening in Sudan is horrifying: The world’s largest displacement crisis, a collapsing state, mass killings — and foreign powers whose roles must be scrutinised, not just by columnists and opinion writers, but by embassy’s governments and political leadership.
Since a power struggle exploded in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the country has slid into a new abyss. The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias formerly active in Darfur, so those old fault-lines are alive again.
The numbers are staggering. Over 14m Sudanese have been displaced from their homes, and millions more have fled abroad. More than 25m — that’s more than half the population — face acute food insecurity. Disease, starvation, and the collapse of basic service delivery are the new normal.
The recent fall of the city of el-Fasher in North Darfur to the RSF marks a grim turning-point. The siege lasted some 18 months. Witnesses describe summary executions, hospital attacks, people killed in their beds, barriers to escape and starvation at scale.
The UN and independent groups now talk openly of mass atrocities, perhaps even crimes against humanity. In short: A war once framed as a military struggle is now full-scale humanitarian devastation.
Over recent days, rights groups and investigators have flagged what looks like a massacre in and around el-Fasher. Satellite analysis tied to Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab points to mass killings; witnesses describe bodies in streets and mass graves.
As ever, the fog of war takes time to clear, but the outline is grimly familiar: Civilians trapped, starved, and killed as front lines lurch through towns built for families, not militias.
That should matter. Because when you see hospitals falling, civilians fleeing by the thousands, sacks of grain priced like gold, you’re hearing the death-knell of a country and the moral test of an international system already failing on many open fronts.
Here’s where the story becomes even more uncomfortable — and urgent — for Western democracies and, yes, for Ireland. The United Arab Emirates presents one face in public: Humanitarian donor, supporter of peace initiatives.
But an accumulating chain of evidence suggests another: Covert arming, logistics support, flights into Chad, weapon transfers — backing the RSF which perpetrates these crimes.
recently revealed a leaked UN expert report showing “multiple flights” from the UAE to bases in Chad used to funnel arms into Sudan. A recent investigation alleged the UAE provided UK-made weapons to the RSF.
Meanwhile, human rights groups have highlighted UK-approved arms sales to the UAE that ended up with the RSF in Darfur’s recent atrocities.
In another twist, the UAE did publicly pledge US$200m in humanitarian aid to Sudan. On October 22, 2025, a senior UAE diplomat called for a ceasefire and civilian transition.
But these statements ring hollow amid the mounting war crimes and evidence of supply chains into the RSF. If the UAE is acting as a humanitarian partner, why does so much of its indirect support appear routed to one of the warring parties accused of genocide and ethnic-cleansing?
The question isn’t rhetorical — it matters. States that mobilise arms and money must be judged for the outcomes, however plausible their public relations may be.
Ireland has a proud humanitarian tradition. Our charities and agencies have been active in Sudan and in the region. The Irish Government has increased funding this year to €14.3m. Without that funding, the famine and displacement would be worse still.
But the humanitarian imperative requires more than cheques. It demands coherence: That we aid those who suffer, insist on safe corridors, challenge impunity — and refuse to look away when external forces help fuel the war machine.
For Irish policymakers, it means pressing:
- for full humanitarian access into Darfur, the Gezira, and the camps where children starve and disease spreads;
- for accountability: supporting sanctions, arms-export checks, and investigation of states implicated in supplying war-making capacity to the RSF;
- for maintaining predictable funding — not short-term projects, but core budgets for clinics, supplies, latrines. When the funding stops mid-programme, lives stop;
- for robust parliamentary and diplomatic scrutiny within the EU of Gulf-state policies that may contravene international humanitarian law.
We don’t talk enough about our own leverage. Ireland may not export heavy arms, but we help set the norms. If Gulf states know they face no serious consequences when their planes carry crates into Chad and onwards to militia in Darfur, the law loses value.
It’s awkward territory, but it shouldn't be. The UAE is a regional power, a Western partner for business and high diplomacy. But proximity should not equal immunity.
The UK, for instance, faces growing questions as a UN dossier indicates British arms found in RSF hands — equipment exported via the UAE.
In Brussels and Dublin, the default is often to maintain “engagement” rather than confrontation. Yet when the RSF pushes into Darfur, starves civilians, bombs hospitals and the world yawns, engagement isn’t enough. A true global norm demands consequences for those who enable atrocity.
As Irish citizens, we tend to sympathise with the powerless. With increasing frequency, power enables atrocity — and we must call it out. The UAE may absurdly claim it’s a humanitarian actor in Sudan; but the evidence suggests it is also deeply implicated in prolonging the war and intensifying the suffering.
Here’s a short checklist for what real action would look like:
- a lasting humanitarian truce, not just weekend-talks;
- arms-embargo enforcement, making sure that weapons going via the UAE or Gulf states don’t land in militia hands;
- open access for aid corridors, especially heavily-besieged areas like El Fasher;
- accountability at the top, including war-crimes investigations and sanctions;
- and Irish leadership in moral clarity — speaking truthfully in EU forums, asking our diplomats questions, keeping the camera on Sudan.
The truth is stark. In Sudan, civilians are dying in hospital beds, starved in camps, shot in the streets — and the world is hardly paying attention. The massacre in el-Fasher is not an isolated horror but part of a pattern.
The RSF’s sweep through Darfur, aided by external logistics and weapon-flows, threatens the very integrity of Sudan as a nation.
For Ireland, the question is: Will we treat Sudan as just another far-off disaster, or will we demand consistency between our values and our practice? We talk of “speaking truth to power” — so let us speak truth to those who supply the power, whether in Khartoum or Abu Dhabi.
Because if humanitarian aid is the calm face of our compassion, accountability is the backbone. Without both, we are not saving lives — we are simply paying for a war we’re not willing to stop.
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