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UAE unveils $1bn Africa AI push amid backlash over backing militants in Sudan

Sunday, 23 November 2025 6:47 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 23 November 2025 6:47 AM ]

Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince, Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan (L), meets with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during the G20 summit, Johannesburg, South Africa, November 22, 2025. (Photo via social media)

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has unveiled a $1 billion plan to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure across Africa, even as evidence grows of the Persian Gulf state’s support for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the group responsible for mass killings in Sudan.

The UAE declared on Sunday that it will allocate $1 billion to expand AI systems and related services across Africa, outlining the initiative at the G20 summit in Johannesburg.

UAE Minister of State Saeed Bin Mubarak Al-Hajeri claimed that the “AI for development initiative” aims to strengthen areas such as education, healthcare, and climate adaptation, presenting artificial intelligence as essential to future economic growth and productivity.

Al-Hajeri noted that trade between the UAE and African nations reached about $107 billion in 2024, a sharp rise from the previous year.

The UAE took part in the Johannesburg summit at the invitation of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, despite not being a G20 member.

Abu Dhabi’s expanding economic footprint in Africa contrasts sharply with its conduct in Sudan, where investigations, diplomatic records, and United Nations reports repeatedly link the UAE to the RSF as the group carries out mass killings across Darfur.

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A recent investigation revealed an extensive online network of fake accounts using stolen and AI-generated images of Somali women to spread pro-UAE and pro-RSF narratives while attacking the Sudanese army. Analysts said the campaign formed part of a coordinated effort to obscure Abu Dhabi’s role in backing the militant organization.

Sudan has also informed the UN Security Council (UNSC) that the RSF had obtained British weapons through the UAE, as RSF fighters massacred thousands in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, and executed patients and staff at a Saudi-funded hospital.

Sudan’s ambassador in London called Emirati assistance “the single most important element” enabling the atrocities.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) recently ordered an emergency fact-finding mission into the RSF’s seizure of El-Fasher, condemning ethnically driven killings, torture, summary executions, and widespread sexual violence.

Adama Dieng, the African Union Special Envoy on the Prevention of Genocide and other Mass Atrocities, warned that “the risk of genocide exists in Sudan.”

Satellite imagery, survivor accounts, and numerous reports over the past two years have documented RSF crimes alongside evidence that UK-origin weapons supplied to the UAE were later redirected to the militant group.

This is not the first time Abu Dhabi has invested in Africa’s AI sector. In June, the Persian Gulf state spent $1 billion in Ghana to position Accra as a future AI hub in West Africa.

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