Western politicians have failed to speak up about the slaughter of civilians in Sudan because the United Arab Emirates has bought and paid for their silence, according to a top Sudanese general.

Lieutenant General Yasser al-Atta, a member of Sudan’s governing Sovereignty Council and the military’s second in command, told journalists that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed has launched a race war against the Sudanese people.

He accused the ruler of Abu Dhabi of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has been carrying out massacres and atrocities across Sudan over the past two and a half years of war, most recently in the Darfur city of el-Fasher.