Denials of War Crimes in Yemen and Sudan
Human Rights Watch stated on Monday that Lana Zaki Nusseiba, a diplomat and senior official in the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs for many years, has a record filled with denying and ignoring human rights violations committed by her country in Sudan and Yemen. On October 21, 2026, the UAE officially nominated Nusseiba for the position of new UN Secretary-General.
Bruno Stagno Ugarte, Senior Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Lana Nusseiba has used her position for years to strongly deny the war crimes committed by the UAE in Yemen and its support for the arbitrary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, while diverting attention from them. The misinformation she has spread regarding the UAE’s human rights record, particularly her rejection of UN reports itself documenting the UAE’s ties to the Rapid Support Forces, has seriously undermined justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators.”
Nusseiba repeatedly denied that the UAE provides military support to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, while refusing to address clear evidence proving otherwise. The Rapid Support Forces, engaged in conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces, are responsible for widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign in the Darfur region. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan concluded that the Rapid Support Forces’ attack on the city of El Fasher “bore the characteristics of genocide.”
Pressure Campaigns and Rejected Evidence
In September 2024, Nusseiba wrote in a letter to The Economist that “the UAE does not provide weapons or any other support to the Rapid Support Forces or to any of the warring parties in Sudan.” This came after the first report of the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan was published, which concluded there were “credible allegations” that the UAE provided military support to the Rapid Support Forces via Chad. A message from the UAE government dated December 2023, attached to the report, claimed that flights from the UAE to Chad would provide humanitarian aid to Sudanese civilians. The unsigned message bore the letterhead of the “Permanent Mission of the UAE to the United Nations in New York,” which Nusseiba headed at the time, precisely from 2013 to April 2024.
In April 2024, responding to accusations by the Sudanese government that the UAE was providing military, logistical, and political support to the Rapid Support Forces, Nusseiba stated in a press release that “the allegations have no basis” and affirmed the UAE’s firm rejection of what it called “false claims.” In July 2024, when asked by CNN if the UAE was arming the Rapid Support Forces, she replied: “No, these claims are completely incorrect. As the UAE has done in countless places around the world when a humanitarian crisis occurs, it rushed to deliver humanitarian aid, then expanded its scope.”
In November 2025, Nusseiba, serving as Minister of State, participated in an intensive UAE pressure campaign targeting prominent members of the European Parliament, arguing that the UAE “plays a constructive role in Sudan” ahead of a vote on a resolution condemning atrocities in Sudan, according to Politico. The European Parliament adopted the resolution without mentioning the UAE’s role in the conflict. Several parliamentary sources told Euractiv that Nusseiba “personally exerted pressure on Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to influence the content of the resolution.”
UN Reports and Private Contractors
In a subsequent decision adopted in July 2026, the European Parliament criticized the UAE’s role in supporting the Rapid Support Forces and called for sanctions against a UAE company involved in recruiting and transporting mercenaries to these forces. A Human Rights Watch report issued in May 2026 concluded that Colombian private military contractors, allegedly hired by a UAE-based company, passed through UAE military bases before being deployed to Sudan to support the Rapid Support Forces and fight alongside them, particularly during the takeover of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, where the Rapid Support Forces committed multiple massacres, widespread sexual violence, and mass kidnappings for ransom.
Human Rights Watch provided additional evidence that the UAE provided significant assistance to the Rapid Support Forces, contributing in some way to their ability to commit war crimes. In August, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan issued a report confirming these findings, concluding that “individuals and entities operating from, registered in, or linked to the United Arab Emirates played a significant role in networks involved in recruiting, financing, transporting, and deploying foreign mercenaries, and in providing military-type support benefited by the Rapid Support Forces.” The Mission pointed to “multiple sources” indicating the presence of Colombian fighters in and around El Fasher before, during, and after its takeover, a process the Mission had previously concluded “bore the characteristics of genocide.” Human Rights Watch also documented the use of Serbian-made munitions for attack drones by the Rapid Support Forces, which were originally sold to the UAE Armed Forces.
On October 27, during an interactive dialogue with UN member states and civil society organizations, Nusseiba was asked about her denial of the findings of the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan and the UN Fact-Finding Mission. She did not directly answer the question regarding whether she would “continue to reject the findings of the very organization she seeks to lead.” Instead, she stated that she had taken leave from her position as UAE minister and would refer any questions regarding the UAE to her country’s government.
As Permanent Representative to the UN, Nusseiba has repeatedly defended the UAE’s compliance with international law during its intervention in Yemen, while rejecting evidence of widely documented violations. Since March 2015, the UAE has played a prominent role in a coalition of countries that carried out military operations in Yemen, including allocating more than 30 fighter jets to execute airstrikes and providing naval vessels to implement the blockade imposed by the coalition, and supporting arbitrary local forces.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
