Sky News 'to end ties with UAE-based Sky News Arabia' over Sudan war
Sky News is set to sever ties with its UAE-based Arabic sister channel over the broadcaster's coverage of the war in Sudan.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the company will withdraw Sky News Arabia’s licence to use its brand next year after it was accused of whitewashing human rights abuses carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan.
The group has been accused of genocide and mass sexual violence in Darfur. Mounting evidence shows the UAE is supporting the paramilitaries, despite Emirati denials.
Sky executives told the UAE’s state media business IMI of its decision late last year, according to the Telegraph. However, an agreement to salvage the partnership could reportedly still be reached.
A major new report last week by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) with Nasa’s Harvest programme revealed that the RSF waged a campaign of starvation against the people of el-Fasher in Darfur, razing dozens of farming villages and devastating crop production around the city.
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The report used satellite imagery and other data to identify 41 agricultural communities attacked between March and June 2024, the first months of a siege that went on for more than 500 days.
Over the following months, two-thirds of those communities showed “no visible pattern of life”, suggesting residents had been displaced or killed. During the same period, the area of land being farmed declined by more than 80 percent.
El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur in western Sudan, was finally taken from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) by the RSF in October 2025, following a lengthy siege that saw the paramilitary construct a network of earth walls around the city, trapping hundreds of thousands of residents inside a “kill box”.
While the UAE continues to deny the allegations, Middle East Eye has reported extensively on its support for the RSF, citing evidence including satellite imagery, flight logs, weapons serial numbers and multiple sources.
UK-based former Sky executives told the Telegraph in November that Sky News Arabia had become a mouthpiece for the UAE’s rulers and had not accurately reported atrocities carried out by the RSF.
One told the outlet that an editorial board meant to monitor coverage had “no real power” as the channel was “owned by [UAE vice-president] Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed”.
In February, following a UN report suggesting genocide had been carried out in el-Fasher, Sky News Arabia sent a reporter to the city who is married to a senior official in the RSF.
Tsabih Mubarak Khatir was filmed hugging a female RSF commander who had previously urged fighters to rape Darfuri women and telling her “we are with you”.
Reports filed by Khatir claimed there was no evidence of the atrocities documented by satellite imagery or media reports gathered from those displaced, while other articles on the Sky News Arabia suggested that satellite imagery showing the devastation in el-Fasher was fake.
The war in Sudan between the RSF and SAF began in April 2023. More than 11 million people are currently displaced from their homes as a result of the war.
While the UAE and its regional allies, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Chad and eastern Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, back the RSF, the SAF is backed by Egypt, Turkey and now Saudi Arabia, which is embroiled in an ongoing feud with its neighbour and erstwhile ally, the UAE.
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