Ottawa calls for arms freeze on Sudan as Carney prepares for UAE visit – National
As Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to visit the United Arab Emirates, human rights lawyers are calling on his government to do more to stop the flow of weapons from Ued related to acts of violence.
While the UAE insists it is not equipping the rapid military forces, human rights groups say they believe the planes meant to carry humanitarian aid from the UAE to Sudan are bringing weapons instead.
Some groups say they believe the shipment includes arms made in Canada.
“Governments like Canada have the opportunity to show what values we are talking about these days out loud, what they are saying when they are being tested by Martin Fischer’s policy director.
“Canadian-made weapons and Canadian components are causing conflicts in Sudan. And it is not enough for the government to say that the existing Arms-Export regime is world class, when the reality shows that it is very different.”
Carney said on Oct. 16 that he will “travel to the UAE for the G20 summit”, which took place on November 22.
A civil war between the Sudanese army and the support forces soon erupted in April 2023
Both warring groups have blocked the entry of humanitarian aid. The war has put more than 30 million people in need of Aid, including 16 million children.
“That’s more than a quarter of Canadians, in terms of children who need some form of assistance,” Fischer said.
It has also created the biggest human migration problem in the world, including those traveling within Sudan and refugees in neighboring countries.
The UAE government has been accused of complicity with the RSF – it says it has strongly denied it, despite the UN panel of experts on Sudan deeming these reports “Reliable.”
In its last days in office this January, the administration of US President Joe Beriden said that the RSF was making new discoveries in the Darfur region. Canada has not defined the violence as genocide.
The US imposed sanctions on parties in Sudan and companies in the United Arab Emirates accused of giving titles to the regime with government funding.
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Unseen violence has been happening for the past month. The World Health Organization reported that RSF attacked a hospital in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher on Oct. 28, killed hundreds of patients and kidnapped many health workers.
Videos posted online showed hospital rooms lined with bullet holes.
Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab reported last week on satellite images that they claim show pools of blood in El-Fasher, suggesting the killing of people in many areas. Online videos show dozens being killed by members of the military.
“Canada is appalled by the attack on El Fasher and condemns the reported massacre of more than 2,000 civilians,” Foreign Minister Anita Anand sent Oct. 28 Platform X.
“We urge all parties to uphold international law, protect civilians, and allow immediate humanitarian aid.”
Anand said he plans to visit the Gulf region in early 2026.
Fischer said ethnic violence produces horror stories.
“They are facing armed raids, robbery, extortion and frankly terrifying reports of sexual violence on escape routes, if they can escape,” he said.
He argues Ottawa should work with partners to pressure both sides to allow aid, and consider increasing their aid contribution.
Ottawa has already pledged $103 million in aid to Sudan since the conflict began.
Fischer also said Canada should tighten its rules to ensure export permits do not allow Canadian arms to be diverted to Sudan. Canadian firms sent $7 million worth of arms to the UAE last year.
“There is a room, and it really needs, to clean our house,” he said.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East called on Ottawa to freeze all arms shipments to the UAE to protect their diversion from Sudan, and to investigate whether that is already happening.
The group notes several reports that the weapons sent to the conflict are supplied by the Street group, a company founded in Canada that appears to be silent in the UAE. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Groups in Sudan Canada have been calling on Canada for months to impose more sanctions and consider inclusion on the RSF’s terrorist list. Others received those calls on Monday before the lower house on foreign rights.
Scgill University Professor Jon Unuh also testified that the UAE receives “conflict gold” from Darfur in exchange for RSF, and can eventually claim agricultural land.
“There is a big economic factor in this,” he said Canada could raise its membership of the OECD group of richest countries to push the UAE to comply with the group’s policy.
“Canada can use coercive pressure on the UAE … to try to suppress the supply of gold from Darfur to the UAE, thus supplying the RSF with weapons,” he said.
Some Witnesses testified that the armed forces of Sudan give up human rights and can make arms from Iran and Muslim brotherhood actors.
Doctors Without Borders says they see both infants and adults with malnutrition. The group’s representative in Canada, Michael Lawson, testified that is rare and reflects a wider siege.
Lawson said horrifying cases of sexual violence and torture have been reported by patients at the group’s hospital in Tawila town.
NDP MP Heather McPherson last week called on Canada to pressure the UAE to stop supporting RSF and supporting international investigations.
“Canada’s incompetence has helped facilitate this war crime – and it must stop now,” the press release said. “Blood is on our hands – and Canada must act quickly that we have so far refused to take.”
The federal government has often identified the UAE as a partner to invest in artificial intelligence.
When asked in this interview last Thursday, Anand would not say that he had raised concerns about Sudan through his UAE Concres. Instead, he removed the power from Canada’s unwieldy export controls.
“That process is carried out under a universally recognized law … and I will say that any violation of that law is looked into and enforced,” he said at the urging of Parliament.
“We take it very seriously, and that’s the job I asked you to do,” he said.
Anand’s office said the work included examining claims about Canadian arms arriving in Sudan.
