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Amnesty traced Chinese bomb in RSF North Darfur strike to UAE re-export

On 9 March 2025, the Rapid Support Forces launched a drone strike near al-Malha in North Darfur. In the causal graph this event strengthens Forced-Displacement Scale, a driver that strengthens People Internally Displaced by Conflict and Violence (IDMC) — a worsening welfare path.

Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Wikimedia Commons portrait; person avatar reused as fact cover, land-pack1 pattern).

Sources: [1][2][3][4]

Read the full account

On 9 March 2025, the Rapid Support Forces launched a drone strike near al-Malha in North Darfur. Local media and a Sudanese human-rights organization reported that 13 people were killed and several others injured; Amnesty International said it could not independently confirm that casualty figure. Amnesty analysed photographs of bomb remnants and identified them as a Chinese-made Norinco GB50A guided aerial bomb manufactured in 2024. It said the weapon was almost certainly re-exported to Sudan by the United Arab Emirates and said the Chinese drones that can drop it are used in Sudan only by the RSF. The finding added weapons-tracing evidence to the January 2024 UN Panel of Experts report, which had called allegations of UAE-linked arms shipments through Am Djarass “credible.” In January 2025, the U.S. Treasury also said UAE-based Capital Tap Holding had provided money and weapons to the RSF. The UAE says it supplies no weapons to any warring party in Sudan and called Amnesty’s report misleading. Mohamed bin Zayed was UAE President when the strike occurred; neither Amnesty nor the U.S. Treasury alleged that he personally ordered the strike or a specific transfer.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan

    Person

    Indirect / organizational responsibility

    verified

    UAE President during the strike and the period in which independent investigators traced RSF-used weaponry to alleged UAE re-export. Amnesty traced the weapon to alleged UAE re-export and U.S. Treasury separately identified a UAE-based company as providing money and weapons to the RSF; no cited source alleges a personal order by Mohamed bin Zayed. Contribution size is permanently_blocked (no sourced fraction); provisional 0.4 is stored only because contributions.size is NOT NULL — not a sourced magnitude.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactAmnesty traced Chinese bomb in RSF North Darfur strike to UAE re-export
    2. strengthensDriverForced-Displacement Scale
    3. strengthensIndicators (2)People Internally Displaced by Conflict and Violence (IDMC)
    Worsening path

    impact weight 0.54 · verified

    U.S. Treasury said UAE-based Capital Tap Holding provided money and weapons to the RSF while describing a Sudan war that had displaced 12 million people; Amnesty separately traced RSF-used Chinese weaponry to alleged UAE re-export, supporting a medium-confidence strengthening link to displacement scale without attributing the entire displacement toll to this single strike. Weight basis: The link is material but indirect: the evidence concerns alleged UAE weapons support to a third-party belligerent rather than a UAE ground operation. Weight 0.54 is the pack's qualitative severity class for this event, not an empirical coefficient.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified4 sources on file
  1. 1.Statement by the UAE Assistant Minister for Security and Military Affairs, H.E. Salem Aljaberi:UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs · verified
  2. 2.Treasury Sanctions Sudanese Paramilitary Leader, Weapons Supplier, and Related CompaniesU.S. Department of the Treasury · verified
  3. 3.Final report of the Panel of Experts on the Sudan (S/2024/65)United Nations · verified
  4. 4.Sudan: Advanced Chinese weaponry provided by UAE identified in breach of arms embargo – new investigationAmnesty International · verified

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorMohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan
  2. contributed toFactAmnesty traced Chinese bomb in RSF North Darfur strike to UAE re-export
  3. strengthensDriverForced-Displacement Scale
  4. strengthensIndicatorPeople Internally Displaced by Conflict and Violence (IDMC)

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Amnesty traced Chinese bomb in RSF North Darfur strike to UAE re-export. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/ae-rsf-al-malha-gb50a-strike-2025

https://factrail.ai/facts/ae-rsf-al-malha-gb50a-strike-2025

Accessed 15 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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