UAE Increases Military Support, Aid to Chad Amid Sahel Strife

ADF STAFF

The United Arab Emirates has deployed troops to train Chadian Soldiers in warfare and how to operate donated Emirati equipment, including at least six armored vehicles that were delivered last year.

News of the UAE troops’ deployment to Chad emerged in January. According to Military Africa magazine, the UAE is expanding its efforts to enhance its military and political presence in Chad — and around the Sahel region — amid the civil war raging in Sudan. Chad and the UAE signed a military cooperation agreement in June 2023.

“The UAE has sent a shipment of military vehicles and security equipment to the Republic of Chad, to support its capabilities in combatting terrorism and enhancing border protection,” the Emirates’ state-run news agency, known as WAM, reported.

Chad has been battling violent extremist organizations such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province(ISWAP), in the Lake Chad region.

Led by Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, son of the late President Idriss Déby Itno, Chad is active in counterinsurgency efforts throughout the Sahel region.

Besides supplying Chad with training and military vehicles, the UAE in August 2023 sent 13 tons of food to Chad to provide humanitarian support for locals and Sudanese refugees fleeing that country’s civil war.

The UAE also helped establish a field hospital in Amdjarass in northeastern Chad.

Sultan Al Shamsi, the UAE’s assistant minister for development and international organizations affairs, told African Business that the hospital was built to treat Sudanese people in Chad and the local community.

Support of RSF Criticized

Some of the UAE’s efforts on the continent have drawn criticism, including its support of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as it vies for control of the country.

According to The New York Times, the UAE is sending powerful weapons and drones to the RSF, treating injured fighters and airlifting the most serious cases from the Chadian town of Amdjarass under the guise of saving refugees.

The UAE allows RSF front companies to provide weapons, supplies and financing services to Janjaweed militias, Husam Osman Mahjoub wrote in the Review for African Political Economy academic journal.

Mahjoub said the UAE also conducts smuggling, gold exporting and money laundering operations with Russian and African companies linked to the Wagner Group militia, now known as Africa Corps, and African governments.

UAE officials deny supporting the RSF.

The UAE “does not take sides in the current conflict” and has “consistently called for de-escalation, a sustainable ceasefire and the initiation of diplomatic dialogue” in Sudan, an Emirati official told the Financial Times.