LONDON — Nathaniel Raymond, a human rights investigator at Yale University, is scheduled to provide testimony to a parliamentary select committee regarding the UK's response to atrocities in Sudan. He will tell Members of Parliament that he believes the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) prioritized the UK government's relationships with the UAE over preventing atrocities in El Fasher.

British government officials received intelligence in 2024 indicating that Ethiopia appeared to be supporting a militia in Sudan's civil war. In May 2024, FCDO officials informed Raymond that private pressure from the UAE prevented the UK from publicly disclosing information linking Ethiopia and the UAE to support for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Ethiopia denies involvement in the conflict, though its role became public in early 2025.

Raymond briefed the international development committee that at least 60,000 civilians had been killed after El Fasher fell to the RSF. An FCDO atrocity-prevention official contacted Raymond to ask if his estimate of 60,000 deaths was too high. Raymond said that his estimate did not include deaths from famine or the RSF's bombardment during the siege.

In written testimony, Raymond stated, "I explained the math. I stated that, in reality, the number of people that the RSF systematically killed after capturing the city could have been higher." He further added, "The FCDO official and I discussed numbers further. I came to believe that this estimate of at least 60,000 people killed by the RSF was a political problem for the FCDO."

The Humanitarian Research Lab, where Raymond works, tracked handsets moving between Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and RSF-held territory in Sudan. Some phones also moved from RSF locations to addresses in the UAE, which the lab believes were shell companies linked to Abdul Rahim Dagalo, the RSF deputy commander. One phone moved to Abu Dhabi from Addis Ababa in four hours, despite no official air traffic data or scheduled commercial flights matching the route.

FCDO officials requested that the Humanitarian Research Lab publicly release phone data analysis linking UAE-based facilities to the RSF because the UK government could not. Raymond stated, "They told me that the UK was facing private pressure behind the scenes from the UAE, limiting its ability to affect the situation." He added, "FCDO personnel suggested that HRL releasing this information could help neutralise these efforts by UAE to prevent the UK from linking them to the armament of the RSF."

On September 26, 2025, a British UN official reportedly expressed despair about the lack of action by the Starmer government as El Fasher was about to fall. Raymond stated, "The UK was our best hope at that time for stopping what we believed would become one of the single largest mass-casualty events of the 21st century." The UAE has denied accusations that it funds and arms the RSF.