The Sudan conflict: Harvard must stand on the right side of history

The war in Sudan, now in its third year, has left thousands dead and displaced millions, according to United Nations estimates. What began as a power struggle between the national army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia has spiralled into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Among the external actors entangled in the conflict, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has emerged as a central force, providing financial and military support to the RSF, according to UN experts and Western officials. That backing has helped sustain the militia’s campaign and deepened Sudan’s suffering.

Harvard University has an opportunity — and indeed a moral obligation — to act. By severing partnerships and financial relationships with the UAE until it halts its support for the RSF, Harvard could send a powerful signal that global engagement must not come at the expense of human rights.

The RSF was created in 2013 as part of the Sudanese government’s effort to rebrand the Janjaweed militia, whose campaigns in Darfur had drawn international condemnation. Initially framed as a counterinsurgency force operating in Darfur and South Kordofan, the RSF soon evolved into a powerful paramilitary organisation with few constraints. In 2017, Sudan’s parliament formally legalised the group, a move critics say enshrined impunity rather than discipline. Since then, the RSF has been implicated in widespread atrocities — the burning of villages, summary executions, sexual violence, and the targeting of journalists. Hospitals, mosques, and schools have not been spared. Beneath the official language of “security operations,” the RSF’s campaign has left a trail of devastation and fear across Sudan.

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For years, the UAE has been supporting the militia with money, arms, and foreign mercenaries. The Gulf state holds substantial economic and political interests in Sudan, which analysts say it hopes to secure should the RSF consolidate its power. Those interests include access to lucrative gold mines and agricultural land, influence over strategic ports along the Red Sea, and the prevention of Islamist groups — long viewed with suspicion by Abu Dhabi — from regaining political influence in Khartoum. 

The consequences of UAE funding for the RSF have been catastrophic, fuelling the militia’s campaign across Sudan and enabling a series of atrocities in Darfur. United Nations experts estimate that roughly 15,000 members of the Massalit ethnic group have been killed, targeted largely because of their identity. In other parts of the region, reports document widespread sexual violence, including the rape and abduction of women, and the killing of children in mass executions. The scale and brutality of these acts have drawn comparisons to the darkest chapters of Sudan’s past.

Harvard maintains strong relations with the UAE through the annual funding it receives; the UAE, according to published data, is its largest donor country. The UAE also funds the Belfer Center at the Kennedy School and has launched the Emirates Leadership Initiative.   

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There is now a growing effort in the US to pressure the UAE from further prolonging the war in Sudan. In August 2024, the American singer Macklemore cancelled his concert in the UAE, citing its support of the militia. The No Business With Genocide organisation started a petition calling for the Disney Company to stop building its theme park in the UAE. Moreover, the Congress is now considering prohibiting the U.S. arms sales to the UAE until it halts its support for the militia. 

At the time of writing this article, the RSF militia and its allied Arab militia have been besieging 260,000 civilians, including 120,000 children, in El-Fashir city for more than a year and a half, and its residents, most of whom descend from the black communities, have been left with no choice but to eat animal food, which itself is about to run out. Those who try to escape are faced with two options: death and kidnapping by the militia members. The UAE never listened to the global calls to pressure its RSF ally to stop the siege. 

The world is watching. Harvard should not turn a blind eye and must never have any connection or polish the image of a country that is callously backing the killing of unarmed Sudanese civilians.  

A new genocide looms in Darfur, evoking the haunting memories of the Holocaust and Srebrenica. Harvard must stand on the right side of history — and act swiftly to help prevent this catastrophe before it occurs. 

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.