Emirati, Israeli disinformation campaign frames Sudan conflict as Christian persecution: Report

Far-right Emirati and Israeli social media influencers have engaged in a coordinated digital campaign to falsely claim that Christians were being killed by "Islamists" in Sudan, a new report has revealed.

Sudanese investigative platform Beam Reports said that after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group seized control of el-Fasher in Darfur nearly a month ago, misleading content about the nature of events began to surface online in a "synchronised manner."

Beam found that several accounts took to social media to re-use images of RSF abuses against civilians in el-Fasher and frame them as "Islamist violence against Christians."

The outlet accused Amjad Taha, an Emirati analyst, of being the architect of the campaign. He reportedly posted several claims about alleged Islamists in Sudan, which were then amplified by other accounts.

For several months, the Emirati figure has led the charge on social media to link Sudan’s armed forces with the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic resistance movement Hamas in Gaza.

Amjad Taha claimed that Sudan's army had "killed 2 million Christians, displaced 8 million, and raped 15,000 women, while leftists stay busy attacking the UAE... a nation where church bells ring freely."

However, none of the numbers cited were supported by credible sources or verified reports, according to the investigation.

The Emirati influencer also said that a Sudanese army officer had "eaten a man's heart after killing him and his children." Again, no evidence was provided, but such claims were amplified by Emirati, Israeli, and far-right accounts.

According to the report published by Beam, the objectives of the coordinated campaign included shifting blame of atrocities away from the RSF, recasting Sudan's war as a religious conflict to "evoke foreign sympathy," and flooding the online space with fabricated content to confuse media coverage.

Massive online network spreading pro-UAE propaganda in Africa: Report

A UAE-linked network has engaged in “covert influence operations” supporting the country and Sudan’s RSF.

One such example was American influencer Nima Yamini, who shared images from el-Fasher and claimed they showed "Christians slaughtered in Sudan - and no one talks about it,” adding that massacres against Christians were so severe that you can "see blood from space."

In reality, blood splatters seen from space were from areas of el-Fasher where the RSF were reported to have shot residents.

In a different post, far-right Polish politician Dominik Tarczynski shared a purported image of a mother and child in el-Fasher with the false caption: "Sudan: genocide of Christians by the Islamists."

In 2023, a conflict broke out between the Sudanese army and the RSF, far from religious lines, which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands, displaced over 12 million people, and led the International Rescue Committee to characterize it as “the largest humanitarian crisis ever documented.”

Sudanese authorities have repeatedly said the RSF enjoys unconditional support from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with Khartoum taking legal action against the country at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in April.

A report by British daily newspaper The Guardian late last month revealed that British-made weapons and military equipment are being supplied by the UAE to militants from the RSF.

Furthermore, Khartoum-based writer and strategic affairs analyst Makkawi Elmalik also said in October that what is happening in Sudan "is not a regular military battle, but a systematic extermination committed by the RSF, supported by the UAE and Israel."

He further stated that both the UAE and the Israeli regime have participated in planning the militia’s attacks on civilians in the Sudanese city and provided them with weapons and intelligence.

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