DUBAI/PORT SUDAN: UAE authorities intercepted millions of rounds of ammunition at an airport which were being illegally transferred to Sudan’s army, Emirati state media said on Wednesday in a report that the Sudanese Armed Forces rejected as a fabrication.
Sudan’s army has instead long accused the UAE of supplying arms to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), its rivals in a two-year-old war, claims that United Nations experts have previously found to be credible and are investigating again.
The UAE denies all such charges.
The report by the WAM news agency said authorities had found “approximately five million rounds of 7.54 x 62 mm Goryunov-type ammunition” on a private plane at an airport and had made a number of arrests.
The WAM report said the plan to supply weapons had involved a group that included Sudan’s former intelligence chief, Salah Gosh, who the United States targeted with sanctions in 2023 for undermining Sudan’s transition to democracy.
“The defendants were arrested during an inspection of ammunition in a private aircraft at one of the country’s airports,” a statement by WAM said, without specifying the airport or the flight path of the plane, or naming those arrested.
The wider deal, allegedly worth millions of dollars, also included “Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition, machine guns, and grenades” and was made under the cover of a sugar import deal in coordination with army Colonel Othman al-Zubeir, WAM said.
