UAE’s UN Chief Candidate Faces Mounting Opposition Over Country’s Role in Sudan War

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UNITED NATIONS, Oct 30 2026( IPS) – As the race for the next UN Secretary-General progresses, the project of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Assistant Minister for Political Affairs, Lana Nusseibeh, has actually dealt with substantial pushback over the nation’s participation in the continuous Sudanese Civil War.

Over the previous 3 years, the dispute in Sudan has actually degraded into among the world’s most alarming humanitarian crises, marked by mass civilian displacement and casualties, widespread human rights abuses, and extensive appetite. This month marks one year because the sharp escalation in hostilities in El Fasher following the siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), throughout which civilians went through serious human rights offenses, relentless blockages to humanitarian help, and whole neighborhoods were displaced.

Substantial information from the UN, human rights companies, and U.S. intelligence reveal that the UAE has actually been a significant provider of weapons, lorries, and logistical assistance to the RSF. In July, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN MENA) prompted the UN General Assembly and member states to enforce an instant arms embargo on the UAE, mentioning serious acts of genocide targeting non-Arab neighborhoods in Darfur.

On October 21, the UAE revealed that Nusseibeh would go into the race to end up being the next UN Secretary-General, looking for to be successful incumbent Secretary-General António Guterres following the conclusion of his 2nd term on December 31. Nusseibeh has actually formerly dismissed claims of Emirati participation in RSF activities as “unwarranted,” explaining them as disinformation to “deflect obligation and weaken global efforts to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.”

On October 27, a press rundown united global policy specialists, human rights supporters, and Sudanese survivors to go over Nusseibeh’s project and its prospective ramifications for the UN’s reliability and capability to safeguard civilians.

Speaking at the occasion, Ibrahim Alduma, a local of El Fasher and Chief Programs Officer at Sudan Action Hub, shared an individual account of the civilian toll the nation experienced following in 2015’s escalation. Alduma stated how his household was caught in El Fasher when hostiltiies emerged, confronted with relentless telecoms disturbances, to the point where he didnt understand if they were still alive. He likewise shared that his youth buddy was eliminated throughout the escalation, just to learn 2 days after the truth.

Alduma highlighted the U.S. federal government’s decision in February 2025 that the RSF had actually devoted genocide and the following sanctions that were troubled 7 comapnies connected with the RSF, all of which were either based in or straight connected to the UAE.

(Nusseibeh) is the one who was lobbying to eliminate UAE from the resolution of the European Parliament, and now she resembles running for the for the United Nations Secretary General. Primarily when we talk about policy, I understand that the world have actually understood whatever about what occurred in Al Fasher, however the concern is not if they’re notified or no,” Alduma stated.

Kenneth Roth, previous Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and a speaker at the rundown, kept in mind that while member states deal with growing pressure to choose a female Secretary-General, Nusseibeh’s late entry shows a more comprehensive problem within the UN to reach an agreement. Roth explained Nusseibeh’s candidateship as both “improper” and “inappropriate.”

“At this phase, I believe it’s truly beyond conflict that the UAE was sending out arms and mercenaries to the RSF. I believe it’s reasonable to state the RSF would not have actually had the ability to be almost as effective militarily as it was and has actually lacked that assistance from the UAE,” stated Roth. “After having actually generally put El Fasher under siege for some 500 days a year earlier, it (the RSF) entered and simply began butchering individuals. Another genocide, and the factor I believe Lana Nusseibeh is an entirely unsuitable prospect for UN Secretary-General is that she rejects this truth.”

Roth even more kept in mind that Nusseibeh’s duplicated rejection of the UAE’s participation in RSF military activity is not based upon accurate findings, stating that she will “ruin her trustworthiness.” He compared her to previous Secretary-General Kofi Annan, on the other hand explaining Annan’s method as securely rooted in human rights and advocacy.

“We can not manage to have actually the UN led by someone who is a genocide denier, and undoubtedly someone who heads a federal government that has actually been assisting and abetting genocide, that is generally criminally complicit because genocide, and she’s a lead individual in covering that up,” stated Roth.

Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, highlighted the function of Western intelligence in tracking the crisis. He highlighted that U.S. and British intelligence actively tracked and knew significant levels of Emirati participation, concluding that the UAE supplied the RSF with the assistance required to perform its human rights offenses.

“For those people who dealt with El Fasher, we initially cautioned El Fasher to the U.N. Security Council in a personal instruction in July 2023 to see diplomats asking how we ensure this does not take place once again. It’s a slap in the face for the dead and for the survivors. Let’s be clear. It’s a 2nd dehumanization of these individuals since it’s imitating in some way this is a murder secret. That this is Colombo, this is murder,” stated Raymond.

“The intelligence worked. The early caution worked. These individuals craved one factor, due to the fact that their lives matter less than the diplomatic, financial, and security relationships in between the U.S. and the U.K. with the U.A.E. That’s it. If you believe there’s in some way a larger thing here, there isn’t. That’s why they passed away: due to the fact that they were simply lesser.”

IPS UN Bureau Report