UK faces pressure to tighten action on Sudan war and RSF financing

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UK action on Sudan conflict

Highlights

Calls intensify for the UK to formally proscribe the Rapid Support Forces under the Terrorism Act, as existing sanctions and diplomatic measures fail to address escalating violence in Sudan.
Despite evidence that British-made equipment is present with RSF forces and £825 million in arms export licences to the UAE since 2020, the UK continued licensing arms exports after documented diversion to Sudanese militias.
In March 2026, the Home Office suspended study visas for Sudanese nationals, stranding students after war-related devastation of Sudan’s higher education sector and highlighting broader domestic impacts.

Policy demands focus on sanctions and proscription

As reported by Financial Times, the British government is being urged to move beyond condemnation of the Rapid Support Forces and formally proscribe the militia under the Terrorism Act. The argument is that existing steps, including sanctions on senior RSF commanders and support for a Human Rights Council inquiry, do not match the scale of the violence described in Sudan.

The article says the RSF, which grew out of the Janjaweed, continues attacks against civilians in Darfur and is now laying siege to El Obeid. It cites documentation from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and a UN fact-finding mission in February 2026, which concluded that the assault after El Fasher fell in October 2025 bore the hallmarks of genocide.

The call for action also includes suspending arms licensing to the UAE while a credible risk of diversion remains and ordering an independent inquiry into the handling of genocide warnings. The article argues that describing the conflict as a balance of abuses by both sides distorts the pattern of harm, pointing to ACLED data for 2024 that attributes 77 per cent of recorded civilian harm to the RSF and about 10 per cent to government forces.

Arms licensing and migration policy draw scrutiny

A central issue is whether London’s relationship with Abu Dhabi has weakened its response to the war. The article says the UAE’s support for the RSF, which Abu Dhabi denies, is documented beyond serious dispute, while British-made equipment has surfaced in militia hands on Sudanese battlefields.

It says the UN Security Council was informed about diverted equipment, including Welsh-made targeting systems and British-built engines in armored carriers, but the UK continued approving export licences. The article links this to £825 million in arms export licences granted to the UAE since 2020, with a rise in 2025 after evidence of diversion had already reached the government.

The piece also highlights domestic policy consequences for Sudanese nationals. It says the Home Office imposed a blanket suspension of study visas for Sudanese nationals in March 2026, a move that strands students as the country’s universities and laboratories have already been devastated by war.

The broader implication for the UK is that proscription would not only increase legal pressure on the RSF but also restrict its financing and lobbying access in London. The article frames the decision as a test of whether Britain remains limited to diplomatic statements or uses its regulatory and legal tools to influence the conflict.

Our earlier article on the FCA’s review of AI chatbots in personal finance explained that UK regulators are debating whether tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini should be brought closer to the regulatory perimeter as consumers increasingly use them for money guidance. It also highlighted two concerns raised in the review: many users may not realise these tools sit outside the protections of authorised financial advice, and heavy dependence on a small group of AI and cloud providers could create shared operational and financial stability risks.

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