THE HAGUE (Reuters) -The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday dismissed Sudan’s case accusing the United Arab Emirates of fueling genocide in Darfur by supplying weapons to paramilitary forces, saying it lacked jurisdiction.
Sudan had argued before the U.N.’s top court last month that the UAE was violating the Genocide Convention by supporting paramilitary forces in Darfur, but the UAE said the case should be thrown out.
The court on Monday agreed with the UAE’s arguments, rejected Sudan’s request for emergency measures and ordered the case be removed from its docket.
Due to the lack of jurisdiction “the court is precluded by its statute from taking any position on the merits of the claims made by Sudan,” a summary of the ruling said.
The UAE hailed it as a legal victory.
“This decision is a clear and decisive affirmation of the fact that this case was utterly baseless. The court’s finding that it is without jurisdiction confirms that this case should never have been brought,” Reem Ketait, deputy assistant minister for political affairs at the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“The facts speak for themselves: the UAE bears no responsibility for the conflict in Sudan. On the contrary, the atrocities committed by the warring parties are well-documented.”
By a vote of 14-to-two, the court threw out Sudan’s request for emergency measures to prevent genocidal acts against the Masalit tribe, which has been the focus of intense ethnic-based attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militias.
Sudan accuses the UAE of arming the RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese army in a two-year-old civil war. The UAE denies the charge but some U.N. experts and U.S. lawmakers have found it credible.
The ICJ is the U.N.’s highest court that deals with disputes between states and violations of international treaties. Sudan and the UAE are both signatories of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Anthony Deutsch. Editing by Gareth Jones and Mark Potter)
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