The UK was uniquely placed to avoid a massacre in Sudan’s el-Fasher but failed to act due to “political capture” by the United Arab Emirates and a desire to maintain good relations with Abu Dhabi, a British parliamentary committee has been told.
Human rights investigator Nathaniel Raymond appeared before the International Development Committee on Tuesday to testify about Britain’s response to the situation in the North Darfur state capital, where an estimated 60,000 people were slaughtered by UAE-backed paramilitaries in October 2025.
He told MPs in a written submission that the UK, which as penholder for the Sudan issue at the United Nations was responsible for driving international response to the crisis, was the “best hope” for stopping “what we believed would become one of the single largest mass casualty events of the 21st Century”.
Instead, Raymond said, repeated warnings and recommendations delivered across two dozen private briefings were ignored, questioned or dismissed.
Raymond told MPs he believed the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) prioritised the British government’s “economic, security, and diplomatic relationships with the UAE above preventing the intentional starvation, forced displacement, and the genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians living in el-Fasher and its surrounding communities”.
