Marco Rubio: US knows who is arming Sudan's RSF and it must end
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said his government knows who is supplying Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) with weapons and that this support must end.
Speaking to reporters at the end of a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada, Rubio said “something needs to be done to cut off the weapons and support that the RSF is getting as they continue with their advances".
“Someone’s giving them the money and someone’s giving them the weapons, and it’s coming through some country,” he said.
“We know who they are and we’re going to talk to them about it and make them understand that this is going to reflect poorly on them and poorly on the world if we can’t stop this."
Rubio said the war in Sudan, which has killed tens of thousands of civilians and has displaced 13 million people, had been discussed “multiple times with multiple countries” at the G7 meeting.
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“I can just tell you that at the highest levels of our government that case is being made and that pressure is being applied to the relevant parties,” Rubio said.
“I don’t want to get into calling anybody out at a press conference because what we want is a good outcome. This needs to stop.”
Rubio did not name the United Arab Emirates as the main sponsor of the RSF, which has been at war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023 and which he said had committed systematic atrocities, including murder, rape and sexual violence against civilians.
But when a reporter mentioned that the UAE was supplying the RSF with Chinese drones, he mentioned the role of the Quad, a diplomatic initiative comprised of the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE, who are tasked with addressing the Sudanese conflict.
“We know who the parties are that are involved, that’s why they are part of the Quad, along with other countries involved,” Rubio said.
“We’re not going to let the Quad process we’ve set up be a shield that people hide behind and say, ‘Well, we’re involved with the Quad, we’re trying to solve it.’”
A spokesperson for the RSF hit back at Rubio, saying his comments did not "serve the path of the Quad nor the American initiative regarding the humanitarian truce in Sudan".
The UAE in Sudan
Middle East Eye has reported extensively on the supply lines used by the UAE to support the RSF, which the US government and several human rights groups have accused of committing genocide in Darfur, the western region of Sudan now completely controlled by the paramilitary force.
Sources have also told MEE that, following a call with SAF commander General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to lobby US President Donald Trump over the UAE’s role in Sudan when the two men meet in Washington next week.
The UAE has “categorically rejected” evidence pointing to its support for the RSF, telling the Africa Report that MEE’s investigation into Abu Dhabi’s use of Bosaso, a port on Somalia’s Puntland coast, to supply the Sudanese paramilitary was based on “fabrications”.
The UAE is a key American ally and the US has, along with Israel, played a key strategic role in the establishment of a string of Emirati bases around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Rubio said that there were “a lot of players” involved in the Sudan war and that he did not want to diminish atrocities committed “on the other side”.
Egypt and Turkey have recently agreed to ramp up their support for the SAF, and Rubio claimed that Iran might also be supporting Sudan's army.
But, he said, “the fundamental problem is that the RSF agrees to things and then never follows through with it”.
"The RSF has concluded they are winning and they want to keep going,” he said. “They are not just fighting a war. They are committing acts of sexual violence and atrocities.
“The RSF agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire, but they don’t intend to comply with it and when you raise the issue of these atrocities, they always hide behind the argument that this is rogue elements,” Rubio added. “Well, it’s not rogue elements. They are doing it systematically.”
RSF atrocities in Darfur
Survivors of the capture of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur that fell on 26 October, have spoken to MEE about what they endured during the over 500 days of siege the RSF subjected the city to.
Those who fled described RSF fighters executing, raping and abusing civilians in large numbers. Satellite imagery has shown the existence of mass graves in el-Fasher and blood-stained ground can be seen from space.
Survivors also told MEE that “beautiful women” were taken away by RSF fighters and that civilians were looted for their possessions and told that if they didn’t transfer money to them they would be killed.
“They're committing acts of sexual violence and atrocities, just horrifying atrocities, against women, children, innocent civilians of the most horrific kind. And it needs to end immediately,” Rubio told reporters after the G7 talks held near Niagara Falls.
He said that humanitarian groups had told the US that, following the fall of el-Fasher, they had not received the number of refugees they had anticipated “because they assume many of them are either dead or so sick and malnourished, they can’t move anymore”.
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