Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan stands accused by US and UN officials of orchestrating a covert weapons pipeline to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, funneling drones and arms disguised as aid to fuel a brutal civil war that has killed over 150,000 and uprooted 12 million, Washington charged Wednesday in a blistering escalation of diplomatic tensions.
The 54-year-old Emirati royal, dubbed the UAE’s shadowy “fixer” for clandestine foreign ventures, allegedly spearheaded the operation through charities under his sway, leveraging front companies and military channels to bankroll warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s RSF amid ethnic cleansing allegations in the conflict-torn nation.
Intelligence intercepts, including phone taps between Mansour and Hamdan, paint a damning picture of Abu Dhabi’s hand in prolonging the 19-month bloodbath, US sources leaked, with bipartisan lawmakers now pushing to freeze arms deals with the Gulf powerhouse until the meddling halts.
“Charities controlled by Sheikh Mansour helped smuggle drones and weapons to Hamdan’s Rapid Support Forces under the guise of humanitarian aid,” a senior US official asserted anonymously, underscoring the deception that masked lethal shipments as mercy missions.
The allegations, first aired in Western media, dovetail with broader scrutiny of Mansour’s global footprint — from Malaysia’s $4.5 billion 1MDB graft scandal to Manchester City’s ongoing financial fair play probes and a thwarted bid to snap up Britain’s Daily Telegraph over influence fears.
Yet the Sudan link strikes deepest, with Washington branding the UAE a backer of “ethnic cleansing” in Darfur and Khartoum, where RSF atrocities have drawn genocide whispers. “He used front companies and military networks to channel funds and weapons to Hamdan,” the official added, citing evidence that shreds Abu Dhabi’s blanket denials.
UAE envoys dismissed the claims as “baseless smears” aimed at derailing Gulf diplomacy, but the fallout threatens to ripple into sports, where Mansour’s City empire — crowned Premier League kings four times since his 2008 takeover — risks boycotts from rights groups.
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As Sudan’s agony mounts, the accusations cast a long shadow over Mansour’s jet-set veneer, blending football’s glitz with the grim calculus of proxy wars in Africa’s horn.
