Giant billboard highlighting UAE role in Sudan war appears in London
A giant billboard drawing attention to the United Arab Emirates' role in the Sudan war can now be seen in central London.
The poster, which repeats every 80 seconds throughout the day and night, features an AI-generated image of a young woman in an infinity swimming pool, taking a selfie with the Dubai skyline behind her.
Next to this is how the selfie looks on her phone, not with Dubai - one of the seven emirates - in the background, but the devastation of the war in Sudan.
With a location mark reading Dubai, UAE, the caption on the billboard reads: "Your selfie won't look so good once you've found out what they're doing in Sudan." The image is also being driven around central London projected on to the side of a van.
It is part of a campaign led by the non-profit group Avaaz to draw people's attention to the role the UAE is playing in Sudan, where it is supporting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that has been accused of committing genocide.
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The billboard has a QR code that links the user to articles about the UAE's role in Sudan, including work from Middle East Eye, the Guardian and the New York Times.
The UAE continues to deny supporting the RSF and recently said that an MEE report into its use of a base in Bosaso, Somalia, was based on "fabrication".
But the evidence of its involvement has grown steadily throughout the war.
Flight tracking data, weapon serial numbers, multiple sources in countries across the Middle East and Africa - as well as diplomats in Europe and the US - and video footage show that the UAE is sending weapons and other support to the RSF, which is led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, a longtime associate of Abu Dhabi's.
Supply lines to the RSF run through neighbouring regions controlled by the UAE's clients and allies, including southern Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic and the Puntland and Somaliland regions of Somalia.
Diplomats across the world have told MEE that the UAE's involvement in the Sudan war is an open secret, but Abu Dhabi's adept lobbying - and, in the words of US President Donald Trump, its "unlimited cash" - has helped shield it from any direct rebuke or material repurcussions.
The campaign led by Avaaz seeks to draw attention to the disparity between the UAE's status as a luxury tourism destination and its role in the war in Sudan, which began in April 2023 and has resulted in the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
A spokesperson for Avaaz told MEE: “If the United Arab Emirates wants to maintain Dubai’s reputation as the premier destination for luxury holidays, it should end any support to the genocidal militia committing atrocities in Sudan. The mounting evidence of their role in the bloodshed will not escape consumers' attention forever.”
On Thursday, Emirati media reported that the UAE's hotels had welcomed more than 23 million guests in the first nine months of 2025 and that the tourism and travel sector contributed about $70bn to the emirates' GDP.
More than a million people visited Dubai from the UK this year, according to the emirate's department of economy and tourism. There are more than 200 luxury hotels in the UAE.
"It's very seductive Dubai, let's be honest," one bystander in London told campaigners, in a post published by Avaaz on Friday afternoon. "I would never have associated Dubai with wars."
"It's horrifying, actually," said another. "I don't think I will be going to Dubai now."
Over half of the UK population (55%) believes the UK should prioritise preventing weapons from Britain being used in Sudan, even if it damages its relationship with the United Arab Emirates
The RSF, which grew out of the Janjaweed militias deployed by the autocratic Sudanese government of Omar al-Bashir to repress uprisings in Darfur in the first decade of the 21st century, was part of the Sudanese state and its military from 2013 until April 2023, when it broke with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
The two entities and their allies have been at war ever since, leading to the displacement of more than 14 million Sudanese people. The SAF, which has also committed atrocities, receives backing from Egypt and Turkey.
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