Articles

Not All Empires Look the Same, by Cheriese Dilrajh – 9 June 2026

From Africa is a Country

Although the UAE doesn’t occupy territory, it arms militias, controls ports, and launders violence through the language of development. Sudan is paying the price.

Empire has never been only a matter of colonial occupation. The United States and Britain remain the most visible architects of widescale death and destruction, but the United Arab Emirates (UAE) represents a different, and in some ways more insidious, model: one that operates through the acquisition of capital, the arming of proxy forces, and the control of infrastructure rather than direct territorial rule.

The alliance between the West and the Gulf operates through military power, financial secrecy, and extractive investment. Its defining feature is the outsourcing of violence—laundered through the language of development, logistics, and humanitarian diplomacy, and hidden behind the architecture of luxury.

The UAE has recently been cast as the unfortunate victim of Iranian retaliation following the regional war started by Israel and the United States, with Donald Trump signaling that he is considering financial assistance to the UAE as a “good ally” that has taken an economic hit. The irony is pointed: The UAE has used its authoritarian apparatus to arrest anyone who publicly documents the extent of Iranian strikes on its territory—a Bellingcat investigation found that at least five people were detained simply for sharing phone recordings of missile strikes. But the victim narrative should not obscure the UAE’s role as a sub-imperial power that has enabled war and war crimes across the region, most consequentially in Sudan.

The UAE’s value to the United States is structural. It was the first Gulf state to normalize relations with Israel, is a major buyer of US weapons, and serves as a hub for intelligence, finance, and military logistics. It has built a network of bases and installations stretching from Yemen to Somalia, around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, constructed with US and Israeli involvement. This is the infrastructure of a regional power that seeks influence without accountability.

Sudan is the site of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. A catastrophic civil war erupted in April 2023 from a violent power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), devastating Khartoum, El Fasher, and dozens of other cities. Blood stains in El Fasher could be seen from space.

Since April 2023, roughly 15 million people have been uprooted, while millions more remain in need of life-saving assistance. Women face particular exposure to sexual violence and torture. More than 33.7 million people—out of a population of 50 million—now require urgent humanitarian aid. Acute food insecurity grips more than half the country, essential health services have collapsed, and disease outbreaks compound an already catastrophic situation. The death toll, though difficult to verify, was estimated at up to 400,000 by late last year.

The war in Sudan is one the UAE is directly funding. It does not resemble classical colonial occupation, and so it is rendered peripheral—yet its consequences are among the most catastrophic on earth.

Sudanese writer Husam Mahjoub offers the clearest analytical frame:

[READ THE REST]

Cheriese Dilrajh is an artist, writer, and investigator at Open Secrets.

, , , , , ,
Views: 9
More content from this blog
, , , , , ,