Double life of Sheikh Mansour: Manchester City owner’s hidden hand in Sudan genocide

By Ivan Kesic

British Premier League club Manchester City’s gleaming success on the football field stands in stark contrast to the suffering in Sudan, where a genocide is unfolding with the overt and covert backing of the club owner.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the billionaire vice president of the United Arab Emirates, has been accused of secretly channeling weapons, money, and support to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – the notorious militia group behind horrendous war crimes against the people of Sudan.

This relationship, revealed through US intelligence handouts, UN reports, and multiple investigations, exposes a man living a double life – a celebrated football owner in public, and a silent backer of war crimes behind the scenes.

While the UAE continues to publicly deny any direct involvement in the Sudan crisis, growing evidence suggests a coordinated effort in which Mansour’s networks help sustain the RSF’s brutal military offensive that has killed more than 150,000 people and displaced 12 million in the African country since April 2023.

The RSF’s recent capture of El Fasher — where thousands of civilians were killed within days – has only intensified scrutiny on the UAE’s role in the bloodshed, including the hand of Mansour.

Emirati blueprint for genocide in Sudan

The United Arab Emirates, under the guidance of its senior leadership, has positioned itself as the primary international backer of the Sudanese militia group, providing it with the military and financial sustenance required for a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

This support is not a passive endeavor but an active and deliberate strategy to achieve the UAE's geopolitical and economic objectives in the Horn of Africa, with Sudan's vast gold reserves and strategic Red Sea coastline being key prizes.

The RSF, successor to the Janjaweed militias responsible for the Darfur genocide in the 2000s, has used Emirati backing to unleash terror, specifically targeting non-Arab ethnic groups like the Masalit.

The fall of El Fasher in late October 2025 stands as a grim testament to this partnership, where RSF militants, backed by Emirati weapons and intelligence as well as the backing of Western countries, killed between 1,500 and 5,000 civilians in merely 48 hours.

Survivors from the city reported scenes of unimaginable horror, including mass executions on roads and in residential areas, with young children found mourning over their mothers' bodies in the desert.

The RSF systematically targeted hospitals and carried out summary executions of civilians trying to flee, with the UN Human Rights Office noting clear indications of ethnically motivated killings.

This operation followed a prolonged siege that created dire humanitarian conditions, and in its aftermath, approximately 750 children fled the city alone, while over 36,000 civilians were displaced, facing acute food shortages and malnutrition.

The Emirati support extends beyond this single battle, constituting a sustained campaign involving arms smuggling via cargo flights through Somalia's Bosaso airport, which breaches a UN arms embargo.

Investigations have revealed that British-made targeting systems from a Wales-based company, Militec, and engines for UAE-manufactured armored personnel carriers have been discovered on battlefields in Khartoum and Omdurman, with the UK government issuing new export licenses for such products to the UAE even after evidence emerged they were being diverted to Sudan.

This arms pipeline is complemented by a financial one, where the UAE's dominance over Sudan's gold trade, with most of the country's exports flowing to Dubai, serves to launder RSF profits and fund its operations.

The UAE's involvement is so integral that Sudan filed a case at the International Court of Justice accusing the nation of being the driving force behind the genocide and violating the Genocide Convention through its support for the RSF.

Sudan’s unseen genocide: El Fasher carnage turns spotlight on UAE-Israel nexus

Shocking massacres in El Fasher have exposed long-ignored genocide in Sudan, engineered by the UAE and Israel, with 150,000 killed and 12 million displaced in the past two years.

Sheikh Mansour's shadow empire

At the center of this geopolitical storm is Sheikh Mansour, whose official roles as UAE vice president, deputy prime minister, and chairman of powerful sovereign investment vehicles provide him with the perfect cover for his activities deemed controversial.

US intelligence agencies have intercepted multiple phone calls between Mansour and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, where they discussed arms transfers and military strategy, identifying Mansour as Hemedti's closest ally within the Emirati government.

This direct communication underscores his personal involvement in coordinating support for the Sudanese militia group and his direct complicity in the ongoing genocide.

His network is accused of operating a web of front companies that coordinate the funding and arms transfers, with charities under his direct control being used to smuggle drones, weapons, and arms to the militia under the guise of humanitarian aid.

This includes funding for RSF hospitals in Somalia dedicated to treating wounded militia fighters, blurring the lines between aid and atrocity.

Mansour’s business profile is a masterclass in blending state and private interests, chairing the Emirates Investment Authority and being connected to the Emirates Development Bank, which provides him with immense, opaque financial power.

His ownership of Manchester City, acquired in 2008, is a central pillar of a sophisticated sportswashing strategy designed to launder the UAE's international reputation and distract from its destructive foreign policy. This strategy, according to observers, has been highly effective, transforming the club into a global brand with over 100 million fans.

Beyond football, his attempts to acquire media outlets like the UK's Telegraph and his involvement in major financial scandals, such as being a shadow owner in the collapse of NMC Health, reveal a pattern of seeking influence and operating with a lack of transparency.

His luxurious personal assets, including a £500 million mega-yacht and a £42 million Spanish estate, are funded by the same system that is accused of fueling a genocide.

This intertwinement of royal privilege, state authority, and global business has created a structure where Mansour can direct sovereign wealth towards strategic geopolitical goals with minimal oversight, making his role in the Sudanese war a function of his position within the UAE's power apparatus.

West's political, economic ties with UAE fuel silence on genocide in Sudan: Analyst

African affairs analyst Kribsoo Diallo says the world’s silence on the genocide in Sudan reflects Western hypocrisy, economic interests, and deep alliances with the UAE, which backs the RSF militants.

Online rebellion of Manchester City's fanbase

The alarming crimes in Sudan, and the mounting evidence linking them to their club's owner, have forced Manchester City fans into a difficult moral reckoning, creating visible fractures within a global community accustomed to celebrating unprecedented sporting success.

In the immediate aftermath of the RSF's capture of El Fasher, social media platforms became a battleground, with the club's official Instagram and X accounts flooded with over 50,000 comments featuring photos of mutilated Sudanese children and captions explicitly stating, "Your owner funds this."

This digital activism far exceeded the engagement on typical match-day posts, signaling a concerted effort to break through the sportswashing narrative.

Within the fanbase itself, a vocal minority has become increasingly critical, with prominent fan pages like "Man City Fever" and "City Xtra" posting statements that the actions of the owner and his government must be condemned and that football should stand for good.

On the largest independent fan forum, Bluemoon, lengthy discussion threads titled "The RSF, the UAE and the killings in Sudan" have garnered hundreds of pages of debate.

Within these forums, an outraged contingent, representing roughly thirty percent of the discussion, has drawn direct moral comparisons, arguing that if another club's owner were accused of such crimes, City fans would demand their expulsion, and the same standards must apply to them.

This has been accompanied by the emergence of dissent hashtags like #MCFCNotMyClub, a significant first in the fanbase's history.

Despite this growing unease, the dominant reaction among supporters remains one of compartmentalization or outright indifference. Some fans online express a desire to focus on the football, arguing that every major club has a dodgy owner and that City is being unfairly singled out.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk