https://observer.co.uk/news/international/article/wld0911uae The UAE backed the RSF. The decision was driven partly by the UAE’s antipathy towards political Islam, which is aligned with its regional rivals Qatar and Turkey.“They felt that the army was coming under the control of the Islamists,” said Volker Perthes, who was the UN’s special representative to Sudan at the time and held mediation talks between the two generals.