It is no longer hidden from anyone that the Sudanese army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has accumulated, with the war entering its second year, a record full of crimes and violations documented by UN and human rights reports as well as testimonies from experts.
Over the past two years, the army has been accused of using aircraft and heavy artillery to bombard residential areas in Khartoum, Darfur, and other regions, resulting in a large number of civilian casualties.
The Sudanese Armed Forces have committed numerous war crimes documented by international entities, including the United Nations, human rights organizations, and media outlets. These crimes include mass killings of civilians, the use of chemical weapons, indiscriminate attacks on densely populated areas, destruction of essential infrastructure, sexual violence, child recruitment, and other atrocities.
In January, The New York Times reported, citing anonymous US officials, that the Sudanese army had used chemical weapons on at least two occasions against the “Rapid Support Forces” in various regions of the country.
The latest chapter of these “war crimes” occurred after the Sudanese army regained control over areas in Khartoum that had been held by the Rapid Support Forces. The army’s forces committed executions and violations against civilians, accusing them of supporting the Rapid Support Forces, as documented in UN reports.
Independent Sudanese organizations and activists also documented violations attributed to the army.
In late March 2025, the Emergency Lawyers Group (a Sudanese human rights lawyer association) announced that field executions had been carried out by Sudanese army forces against civilians in Khartoum and Jabal Awliya, under the claim that they collaborated with the Rapid Support Forces. The group published horrifying videos showing military personnel and others in civilian clothes executing civilians cold-bloodedly, after blindfolding them.
According to the lawyers, some of the perpetrators in the videos justified their actions by claiming they were “punishing Rapid Support Forces supporters.”
The army also imposed a suffocating siege on some areas, resulting in severe shortages of food, water, and medicine, and a rapid deterioration of humanitarian conditions.
Reports confirm that the Sudanese army is directly responsible for preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid and using starvation as a weapon of war, in direct defiance of the international community and international laws and conventions, despite international figures indicating that 30 million Sudanese are in need of assistance and that around 600,000 Sudanese are facing famine conditions.
Furthermore, cases of arbitrary detention of political activists and civilians without judicial orders have been documented, with some being subjected to torture and ill-treatment. The army’s prisons have been described as “death cells.”
Along with these practices, which amount to “war crimes,” the Sudanese army has not hesitated to use civilians as human shields to secure its movements in some of the conflict zones, in flagrant violation of international laws and conventions that call for the protection of civilians during wars.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated, “The Sudanese army has turned civilians into targets… the documents in our possession will form the basis for historic trials.”
All of this is accompanied by a deliberate and systematic policy that prevents any independent and neutral media coverage, instead promoting media disinformation and spreading false narratives about the dire reality that Sudanese people are facing under the army’s rule.
Reports indicate that the Sudanese army is working to divert attention from the humanitarian atrocities and widespread human rights violations by promoting false claims in order to shift international media and organizations’ focus away from its actions.
The Sudanese army exploits international platforms to promote issues unrelated to the ongoing war, which has caused unacceptable human suffering, in an attempt to reduce international pressure on it, especially regarding the sanctions imposed on it.
Regarding the army’s claims of international interventions and conspiracies, it is Burhan who seeks external help, trying to involve other international parties in the ongoing conflict in Sudan. He offers promises of deals, bases, and ports in Sudan post-war in exchange for acquiring deadly weapons to kill Sudanese civilians. This has been documented by numerous investigations published by international media outlets.
US sanctions did not deter Burhan from pursuing his destructive agenda. In early this year, the United States imposed sanctions on Burhan after accusing him of leading military operations that included attacks on civilians, such as indiscriminate bombings of civilian infrastructure like schools, markets, and hospitals, as well as blocking humanitarian aid and using food as a weapon of war.
Amid the suffering endured by Sudanese people, the United Arab Emirates has supported all international and regional efforts aimed at achieving peace in Sudan and finding a political settlement to return the country to a civilian government.
However, the Sudanese army has always been the party rejecting these efforts, even refusing to attend international conferences held on this issue.
Over the past decade, the UAE has provided more than $3.5 billion in aid to Sudan, including over $600 million since the start of the current conflict.