Sudan's army-aligned government tells MEE that presence of Rapid Support Forces patron will 'render the conference little more than a public relations stunt'

The UK has invited its ally the United Arab Emirates to a London conference on Sudan’s war in April, but not the Sudanese army-aligned government, according to a document shared with Middle East Eye on Friday.

Neither the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) nor its enemy, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have been invited to the conference, set to take place in the British capital on 15 April.

The presence of the UAE, which has supplied the RSF with weapons and other goods throughout a war that began in April 2023 and has led to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, at the talks has prompted outrage from Sudanese officials aligned to the army.

In a document shared with MEE, the Sudanese foreign ministry said that it had not been invited to the conference under the pretext of being a “warring party”. “Ironically, the UAE, effectively a party to the war, is invited,” the document, dated 14 March, states.