Sudan is taking the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of supporting Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the civil war.

Khartoum argues the UAE is “complicit in the genocide” of the Masalit community, in West Darfur, through its military, financial and political backing for the RSF.

In response, the UAE has strongly rejected Sudan’s allegations, calling the case a “cynical publicity stunt”, and saying it will seek an immediate dismissal.

Since the war began in April 2023, both the RSF and the Sudanese army have been accused of committing atrocities.

The RSF has been accused of committing a genocide in Darfur – against the region’s non-Arabic groups.

According to news agency AFP, Sudan’s submission to the ICJ says: “The United Arab Emirates fuels the rebellion and supports the militia that has committed the crime of genocide in West Darfur.

“The United Arab Emirates must make full reparation for the injury caused (by) its internationally wrongful acts, including paying reimbursement to the victims of the war.”

An unnamed UAE official said that “the allegations presented by the SAF representative at the ICJ lack any legal or factual basis, representing yet another attempt to distract from this calamitous war”.

UN experts monitoring the arms embargo on Darfur have previously described accusations of the UAE smuggling weapons to the RSF through Chad as credible.

The ICJ’s advisory opinion is not legally binding but still carries significant political weight.

The nearly two-year war has devastated Sudan, with tens of thousands killed and over 12 million people displaced, fuelling one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Earlier this week, heavy shelling on a camp for displaced people in North Dafur left dozens of people feared dead.

A crowded market in Abu Shouk, a camp on the outskirts of the city of el-Fasher, was attacked for roughly two hours on Tuesday evening, a local official told the BBC.