April 30 (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates has referred the chief of staff of Sudan’s army and 12 other defendants and six companies to its State Security Court over an alleged attempt to move ammunition through UAE territory to the Sudanese army, state news agency WAM reported on Thursday.
Prosecutors said the shipment was intercepted before transfer by private aircraft and linked the procurement arrangements to a committee chaired by Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, WAM added.
The defendants face charges including illicit trafficking in military materiel, forgery and use of official documents, and laundering proceeds derived from these crimes, WAM said.
Among the defendants is Sudan’s army chief of staff General Yassir al-Atta – charged in absentia – who has made fiery statements against the Gulf power.
The Sudanese army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UAE authorities said they intercepted millions of rounds of ammunition at an airport in 2025 that were being illegally transferred to Sudan’s army, a report by WAM said, though the Sudanese Armed Forces rejected the report as a fabrication at the time.
Ties between the UAE and Sudan have deteriorated with the Sudanese army accusing the UAE of supplying arms to the paramilitary RSF, its rival in a three-year-long war in Sudan.
The UAE has strongly denied supplying arms to the RSF, emphasizing that its role is strictly humanitarian.
The war in Sudan, which erupted from a power struggle between the army and the RSF, has devastated the country, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing about 14 million people.
While the army has retaken central Sudan and the RSF has consolidated its control of the Darfur region, fighting continues along the main frontlines in the Kordofan region, as well as Blue Nile state where the RSF has opened up a new front along the border with Ethiopia.
(Reporting by Enas Alashray and Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Tala Ramadan and Enas Alashray; Editing by Toby Chopra and Hugh Lawson)
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