Germany: Confront UAE Role in Sudan, Repression at Home

Click to expand Image Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UAE's President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan during a work lunch as part of the G7 summit, in Evian, eastern France, on June 16, 2026. © Ammar Abd Rabbo-Pool/SIPA/2606161433 (Sipa via AP Images) (Berlin, September 8, 2026) – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and other senior officials should publicly call out the United Arab Emirates’ human rights record and its role in regional conflicts when they meet President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Berlin on September 10, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. “The German government’s lack of will to publicly address the UAE’s devastating role in Sudan is deeply troubling,” said Philipp Frisch, Germany director at Human Rights Watch. “Germany led the way for robust UN investigations into atrocities in Sudan, and hosted a major conference in Berlin on the issue earlier this year. This makes its failure to address the UAE’s harmful role in Sudan all the more jarring, effectively providing a free pass for future abuses.” The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, which Germany helped establish in 2023, published a report on September 1, 202