Members of the Rapid Support Forces in the village of Abraq, near Khartoum, on 22 June 2019. [Getty]
The notorious Sudanese Rapid Support Forces militia is using British military equipment in its brutal war against the country’s official armed forces, according to documents seen by the UN Security Council.
UK-made target systems and engines for armoured vehicles have been discovered on battlefields in the country, raising questions about British arms exports and the government’s role in the conflict, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
The equipment, which appears to have entered Sudan via the United Arab Emirates, has been used by the Rapid Support Forces, which has been fighting the Sudanese army for control of the country since April 2023.
The militia has been accused of committing genocide by the UN and United States, while rights groups have documented numerous massacres by the group.
The RSF is believed to have killed at least 2,000 people after capturing the western Sudanese city of Al-Fasher this week. It is accused of committing ethnic cleansing and sexual violence in its war.
The UAE has been accused of providing money, weapons and mercenaries to the RSF. It has denied links to the group however.
Evidence that British-made equipment was being supplied to the RSF appears to not have an impact on exports, according to data, which shows that the British government continued to approve new licenses regardless.
Two dossiers dated June 2024 and March 2025 submitted to the security council were compiled by the Sudanese military, which it says are “evidence of UAE support” for the RSF.
New material shows that targeting systems manufactured by Wales-based company Militec were discovered in former RSF bases in Khartoum and twin city Omdurman.
Data shows that the UK has approved licenses for companies like Militec to export training systems to the Emirates since 2015.
The government issued a new licence for such products to the UAE in September 2024, three months after evidence first suggested that the products were being shipped to Sudan, according to the data.
The UN has also received images of armoured vehicles produced by Emirati defence contractor Edge that are alleged to have been in RSF hands.
One photograph shows an engine from an APC marked “Made in Great Britain by Cummins Inc”, indicating it was manufactured by the UK subsidiary of US company Cummins.
The company said it could not find any transactions that specified Sudan as the end destination in a statement to The Guardian.
A spokesperson for the British Foreign Office said: “The UK has one of the most robust and transparent export control regimes in the world. All export licences are assessed for the risk of diversion to an undesirable end user or end use.
“We expect all countries to comply with their obligations under existing UN sanctions regimes,” it added.
The war in Sudan has killed at least 150,000 people, displaced millions of others, and left 25 million suffering acute hunger. The UN has described it as the gravest humanitarian crisis anywhere in the world.
The UN is warning that the militia could carry out further “large-scale, ethnically-motivated violations and atrocities” in El-Fasher after capturing the city over the weekend.