The United Arab Emirates on Monday blamed the Sudanese armed forces for bombing the home of its ambassador in Khartoum.

The UAE's foreign ministry said in a statement that the attack on its ambassador's residence in the Sudanese capital had caused extensive damage to the building.

The Sudanese army rejected the accusation, putting the blame instead at the door of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary outfit Khartoum says has been backed by the UAE amid Sudan's civil war that has engulfed the country for the last 17 months.

'Heinous attack,' says UAE

The oil-rich UAE's Foreign Ministry was quoted by official WAM news agency as saying that it "strongly condemned the heinous attack that targeted the residence of the UAE head of mission in Khartoum by a Sudanese army aircraft, which resulted in extensive damage to the building:"

"The UAE has called on the army to assume full responsibility for this cowardly act," it said, describing it as a "flagrant violation of the fundamental principle of the inviolability of diplomatic premises."

Sudan's army has been fighting the RSF since April 2023 in a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people and ignited a dire humanitarian crisis.

Sudan's military however said in a statement that "it does not target the headquarters of diplomatic missions, United Nations agencies or voluntary organisations and does not turn them into military bases and loot their assets."

Instead it blamed the RSF and alluded to its past allegations of UAE support for the group.

"The one that carries out these heinous and cowardly actions is the terrorist, rebel militia [RSF]... supported in committing all this by countries known to the world."

UN says 'credible' evidence UAE is backing RSF

In January, a UN Security Council report found "credible" evidence that the UAE had supplied weapons to the RSF via Amdjarass in northern Chad.

More than 14,000 people in Sudan have been killed, some 33,000 injured, and almost 25 million people — half of the country's population — are "in need," according to the UN.

Most of Khartoum has been controlled by the RSF for several months now.  The Sudanese army recently launched a renewed offensive trying to retake the capital. 

jsi/msh (AFP, Reuters)