U.S. State Department funded report: UAE and Iranian secret arms shipments fueling Sudan’s civil war

According to a State Department funded report, prepared by the Sudan Conflict Observatory and evidence collected from captured weapons in Sudan, accessed by the Washington Post, the devastating civil war is reportedly being fueled in part by weapons secretly supplied to both sides by foreign countries, including munitions and drones from the United Arab Emirates and Iran. Washington Post journalists were shown a drone that Sudanese army officials said had been captured from the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces along with munitions for the drone, that links back to labeling indicating the munitions had been manufactured in Serbia and sent to the UAE Armed Forces Joint Logistics Command. The Washington Post went on to report that an assessment shared exclusively with The Post said the group had tracked 32 flights between June 2023 and May 2024 and concluded with “near certainty” that they were weapons transfers from the UAE to the RSF. The Observatory report also tracked seven flights between Iran and Sudan from December until July. Four of the flights were believed to be military because they returned to an Iranian air force apron at a Tehran airport, the report said.