Sky News 'to end ties with UAE-based Sky News Arabia' over Sudan war Submitted by Alex MacDonald on Wed, 03/18/2026 - 11:33 Sky staff say outlet became 'mouthpiece' for UAE and whitewashed RSF atrocities in Darfur Emiratis stand in front of the Sky News Arabia logo during the launch of the network in Abu Dhabi on 6 May 2012 (AFP/Marwan Naamani) Off 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. 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 parami