The UK government rejected measures which could have prevented atrocities carried out by the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, according to a 7 November report by The Guardian.

An internal government paper from last year presented four options for increasing the protection of civilians in Sudan, including “atrocity prevention.”

The options were evaluated by officials from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) last year, and included the introduction of an “international protection mechanism” to safeguard civilians from war crimes and sexual violence.

An October 2025 report from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), seen by The Guardian, reveals the UK chose the “cheaper” and “least ambitious” option because of aid cuts. This option included allocating additional funds to the Red Cross and other organizations.

“Given resource constraints, [the UK] has opted to take the least ambitious approach to the prevention of atrocities, including CRSV [conflict-related sexual violence],” the report said.

Shayna Lewis, a Sudan expert with US-based human rights group Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities (Paema), said “atrocities are not natural disasters – they are a political choice that are preventable if there is political will.”

“The FCDO’s decision [to pursue the least ambitious option for atrocity prevention] clearly shows the lack of priority this government places on atrocity prevention globally, but this has real-life consequences. Now the UK government is complicit in the ongoing genocide of the people of Darfur,” she added.

The ICAI report says the fourth and “least ambitious” option was selected due to “constraints in terms of resourcing and staffing.”

“An already overstretched country team did not have the capacity to take on a complex new programming area,” it stated.

The constraints negatively impacted the ability to protect women and girls from rape, which is among the atrocities being committed by RSF fighters.

The plans were rejected six months into the 500-day siege of the North Darfur city of El-Fasher, despite intelligence warnings that residents faced the threat of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

RSF forces pushed into El-Fasher on 26 October. The group’s fighters massacred thousands of civilians who failed to flee before the city fell, with some even filming themselves carrying out the atrocities.

Satellite imagery released by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) showed massive blood stains in areas consistent with RSF movements.

According to the UN, women and girls have been raped by RSF fighters while trying to flee El-Fasher.

“Humanitarian partners reported that at least 25 women were gang-raped when RSF forces entered a shelter for displaced people near El-Fasher University. Witnesses confirm RSF personnel selected women and girls and raped them at gunpoint, forcing the remaining displaced persons – around 100 families – to leave the location amid shooting and intimidation of older residents,” the UN Human Rights Office said in late October.

Numerous reports over the past two years have confirmed Emirati military support for the RSF. Abu Dhabi denies the charge.

This includes UK arms supplied to the UAE and then sent by Abu Dhabi to the RSF, according to two dossiers of documents seen by the UN and cited by The Guardian last month.

“Months after the UN Security Council first received material alleging that the UAE may have supplied British-made items to the RSF, new data indicates that the British government went on to approve further exports to the Gulf state for military equipment of the same type,” The Guardian noted.

The Cradle Media report