UAE Leaked UN report raises new concerns over country's role in conflict

Pressure is mounting on the United Arab Emirates over its presence at a crucial conference in London aimed at stopping the war in Sudan after a leaked confidential UN report raised fresh questions over the UAE's role in the devastating conflict.

- Mark Townsend

The UAE has been accused of secretly supplying weapons to Sudanese paramilitaries via neighboring Chad, a charge it has steadfastly denied.

However, an internal report - marked highly confidential and seen by the Guardian - detected "multiple" flights from the UAE in which transport planes made apparently deliberate attempts to avoid detection as they flew into bases in Chad where arms smuggling across the border into Sudan has been monitored.

The allegations raise complications for the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, who controversially invited the UAE, alongside 19 other states, for Sudan peace talks at Lancaster House today.

The 14-page report - completed last November and sent to the Sudan sanctions committee of the UN security council - was written by a panel of five UN experts who "documented a consistent pattern of Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo flights originating from the United Arab Emirates" into Chad, from where they identified at least three overland routes potentially used for transporting weapons into neighboring Sudan.