MOGADISHU (KAAB TV) – A series of reports by United Nations (UN) expert panels and human-rights organisations assert that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been implicated in the breach of international arms embargoes affecting conflict-zones such as Somalia and Sudan.
According to a 2017 UN-monitoring team report, the UAE was accused of transferring military equipment into Somalia in violation of the arms embargo that the UN Security Council imposed in 1992.
The report cited activities including a UAE vessel changing course to approach Somali coastal beaches, unloading shipments via small craft, and involvement in the development of a military base at Berbera in the self-declared region of Somaliland.
More recently, investigations by Amnesty International and the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan corroborate that sophisticated Chinese-manufactured weaponry—specifically GB50A guided aerial bombs and 155 mm AH-4 howitzers—have been documented in the hands of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan’s Khartoum and Darfur regions.
These weapons were originally exported to the UAE, which appears to have re-exported them into Sudan, thereby flouting the UN arms embargo in place for Darfur.
In addition, a recent Guardian and Reuters reportage reveals that UK-made small-arms training systems and vehicle engines exported to the UAE were later found in RSF-controlled areas, raising new questions about the UAE’s role as a conduit for British-origin equipment into Sudan.
The reports suggest the UAE is operating within a broader business network engaged in clandestine arms transfers—sometimes via third-party manufacture or re-export—and that these flows undermine regional peace and security by enabling non-state armed actors to obtain military gear.
The UN has voiced concern that such arms influxes into countries like Somalia and Sudan increase the opportunity for illicit weapons to enter combat zones or be traded in unregulated markets.
The UAE strongly denies all such allegations, stating that it complies with international export controls and sanctions.
Western exporting states are under growing pressure—from human rights groups, diaspora communities, and multilateral bodies—to halt military equipment sales to the UAE until assurances of non-diversion and end-use monitoring are in place.