Sudanese diaspora and rights groups oppose UAE's Lana Nusseibeh for UN top job

Sudanese diaspora members and international human rights monitors have denounced the candidacy of Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh for the top job at the United Nations, citing her denial of accusations that the United Arab Emirates is fuelling the war in Sudan by backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The UAE nominated Nusseibeh last week to replace António Guterres, who finishes his second five-year term this year, upending a race that had become gridlocked.

Rights groups have documented evidence of UAE support for the RSF for years. The force has been accused of atrocities in its war against the Sudanese army, including an attack on the city of El Fasher in October 2025 that the UN said had "hallmarks of genocide". Nusseibeh, the UAE's representative to the UN until 2024, has repeatedly reflected her government's blanket denials of those accusations.

'No track record of acting independently'

Hala al-Karib, the regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, said Nusseibeh had "no track record of acting independently of her country's role in Sudan" and that endorsement by the security council would amount "essentially [to] a denial of the genocidal acts committed in El Fasher by the RSF".

Speaking at a virtual briefing held by the advocacy group Avaaz on Tuesday, Ibrahim Alduma, who grew up in El Fasher and co-founded the human rights organisation Sudan Action Hub, said a successful Nusseibeh candidacy would cost the UN public trust. "If this candidate [succeeds], how would we tell people on the ground that the United Nations is not an obstruction of the [rights of] the people of Sudan?" he said.

Husam Mahjoub, co-founder of the independent broadcaster Sudan Bukra TV, said electing the UAE's senior diplomat would hand leadership of UN institutions to "that government's chief defender, at the very moment Sudanese civilians most need the UN to hold powerful states accountable".

Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Nusseibeh had been asked about the UAE's role in arming and supporting the RSF and "just blatantly denies it without regard to the facts". He called her "a completely unsuitable candidate".

Bruno Stagno Ugarte, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch, said on Wednesday that her dismissal of UN reports documenting the UAE's links to the RSF had "seriously undermined justice and accountability for the victims".

Kate Ferguson, co-founder and co-executive director of the charity Protection Approaches, said she had seen insufficient evidence that Nusseibeh was independent of the state she comes from, describing the situation as "autocratic capture of our most significant multilateral institution".

Nusseibeh pledges support for accountability

In a statement on Tuesday, Nusseibeh said she would support UN fact-finding missions working on accountability and transitional justice over the war in Sudan if she got the job, and described the RSF's crimes as "atrocious". She said she had taken a leave of absence from her ministerial post in the UAE government to be "mindful of the obligations of independence" the UN role would entail, adding that "the horrific conflict in Sudan will be the litmus test of the success of an incoming secretary general".

To become the next UN secretary general, a candidate needs at least nine affirmative votes from the 15 security council members and must avoid a veto from the US, UK, China, France or Russia. An informal poll earlier this month placed former Costa Rican vice-president Rebeca Grynspan narrowly ahead, but she and all other candidates drew two or more opposing votes from the permanent members. The next straw poll could come as soon as Friday, with diplomats still negotiating its format and timing.

Source: The Guardian World.