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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, 2026, documenting the UAE’s support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the warring parties in the conflict for control of Sudan since April 2023. The report concluded that the RSF was responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and abuses the UN investigators found to bear “hallmarks of genocide.” UN investigators concluded that “individuals and entities operating from, registered in, or linked to the United Arab Emirates played a significant role in networks involved in the recruitment, financing, transportation and deployment of foreign military contractors and the provision of military-related support benefiting the Rapid Support Forces.” The UAE has denied these allegations. In a May 2026 report, Human Rights Watch concluded that the Abu Dhabi-based security company, Global Security Services Group had since 2024 hired hundreds of Colombian private military contractors deployed to Sudan to fight alongside the Rapid Support Forces. Private military contractors were in El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, in October 2025, when the RSF took over the city and committed widespread atrocities. Human Rights Watch has urged Germany and other EU member states to investigate the role of the Global Security Services Group and its CEO, Mohamed Hamdan al-Zaabi, with a view to adopting targeted sanctions against them. Human Rights Watch has also urged the EU countries to adopt an EU-wide arms embargo against the UAE and publicly denounce its assistance to the Rapid Support Forces. Human Rights Watch has long documented extensive repression by the UAE at home against dissent, widespread restrictions on free expression and association, and serious abuses against migrant workers, including during the regional conflict with Iran. Emirati authorities have targeted dissidents, activists, and critics through prosecutions and lengthy prison sentences. In 2025, UAE courts confirmed the unfair conviction of 83 human rights defenders and dissidents in the country's second-largest mass trial. Among those convicted, the prominent human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor has been detained since 2017 and sentenced to lengthy prison terms in retribution for his human rights work. News organizations have reported that Germany and the UAE are expected to announce a major investment partnership during the upcoming visit. The visit will also include meetings with German arms manufactures and a state banquet. Germany's efforts to strengthen economic and security relations with the UAE should not come at the expense of addressing serious human rights concerns within the country and its role in abuses in armed conflicts, Human Rights Watch said. “How can German leaders keep a straight face when they roll out the red carpet for bin Zayed and boost security cooperation with the UAE, while the Emirates fuels atrocities in Sudan,” Frisch said. “Germany should make it clear that it stands ready to sanction UAE entities transferring arms and fighters to assist repression in Sudan, and should call for the release of Ahmed Mansoor and other unjustly jailed critics.”

Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch•Human Rights Watch8 Sept

RLPO/Manze review – all-British Prom features fiery theatrics and cheeky subversion

Royal Albert Hall, London Smartly programmed Prom included a nimble rendition of Britten’s Violin Concerto, the visionary masterpiece that is Vaughan Williams’s Ninth, and the world premiere of Carmel Smickersgill’s A Brick Thrown With Love Over a century of British music was on display at this smartly programmed Prom in which the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic proved you don’t have to hail from Berlin to hold a London audience spellbound. Principal guest conductor Andrew Manze bookended the concert with career-spanning works by Vaughan Williams, there was a world premiere from Carmel Smickersgill, and Simone Lamsma was a commanding presence in Britten’s Violin Concerto. Smickersgill’s A Brick Thrown With Love imagines an act of protest from three perspectives: the idea itself, the affected community and the person responsible for lobbing said brick. The opening movement featured a cheeky clarinet theme, mocked, distorted and ultimately hijacked by a subversive orchestra. A shiver of bells built to an elated climax in part two before shifty, syncopated brass propelled the third section to a brutal catharsis. The musical impasto was applied a little thickly in places but the imagination was impressive. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Clive Paget6 Sept

Munich Philharmonic/Lahav Shani/Martha Argerich review – the great pianist gleams

Royal Albert Hall, London Argerich stilled a capacity crowd for this prom with her lucid playing of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 2, though the orchestral parts of the programme lacked overall direction The international heavyweights have been coming thick and fast as this year’s BBC Proms hurtles towards its close. The Munich Philharmonic arrived with new chief conductor Lahav Shani hot on the heels of two acclaimed concerts from their Berlin counterparts . Once conducted by Gustav Mahler and Wilhelm Furtwängler , the Munich Phil is an unequivocally venerable orchestra. But the Berliners remain a hard act to follow. The opening gestures of Farrenc’s Overture No 2 were scrappy and the strings struggled to blend despite Shani’s energetic leadership, conducting without a score or baton throughout the concert. But I suspect most of the capacity crowd hadn’t scrambled for tickets specifically to hear this orchestra. Instead the prom’s big draw was legendary 85-year-old pianist Martha Argerich , whose appearance on stage for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 2 prompted gales of whooping. After the concerto she was repeatedly called back by audience stamping until she sat back down (to another wave of applause), this time alongside Shani. Their encore, The Fairy Garden from Ravel’s Mother Goose suite, was oddly wooden, only occasionally illuminated by Argerich’s right-hand filigree, skimming the keyboard in delicate glissandos. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Flora Willson6 Sept

Why Are People Talking About a German Reset with Russia?

The summer of 2026 has raised questions once again among politicians, diplomats, and academics about whether Germany might be about to dither on Russia. Last month, a drone attack on German soil seemed designed to coerce Germany back into business as usual. Earlier, there had been rumblings about two German ex-chancellors brokering a peace treaty between Kyiv and Moscow. Both Angela Merkel and Gerhard Schröder are living embodiments of the ill-reputed Ostpolitik, Germany’s tradition of pragmatic cooperation with the Kremlin over the heads of other Eastern European countries.Is Germany getting ready for a reset with Russia, though? Not really. Berlin’s

War on the RocksWar on the Rocks•Jakub Eberle2 Sept