Reported by Prism Reports, Google Cloud announced significant investments in advanced cloud capabilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in April 2025 this year, even though the country is heavily involved in the ongoing genocide in Sudan, which has so far killed over 150,000 people.
The UAE continues to provide military, financial, and political backing for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This includes weapons, advanced drones, and other technological and logistical support, as well as helping the RSF military quickly integrate AI.
Weeks before the announcement of this partnership, Sudan had formally charged the UAE before the ICJ of being complicit in acts of genocide against the Masalit community in West Darfur. However, amid lobbying by the UAE and the U.S. administration, the ICJ dismissed the case.
This partnership between the UAE and Google extends beyond cybersecurity, deepening into the defence sector, as the UAE is set to develop the “world’s largest AI infrastructure project.” The country has committed to a USD$1.4 trillion, 10-year investment framework with the U.S., in which AI is at the forefront, and the White House did not mention any human rights concerns when they made the announcement.
The article draws parallels to Project Nimbus, Google and Amazon’s USD $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud infrastructure, AI, and technology services to the Israeli government and military, that continues to carry out war crimes, ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people in an ongoing genocidal apartheid regime.
As Alia El-Assar, director of media organising at Adalah Justice Project, says:
Google Cloud doesn’t seem to have any qualms about providing AI technology in service of human rights violations and in service of war and genocide. […] At a time when the UAE government is backing the ongoing genocide in Sudan, Google Cloud is entering into a partnership with this government.
These developments signal the normalisation of militarisation agendas globally. Tech companies continue to expand their lucrative contracts with governments and militaries, weaponising AI technologies. We continue to see examples here in the Netherlands, Europe and throughout the globe that continue to target people of colour, minorities, and immigrant populations.
Sudan is currently facing the world’s biggest “humanitarian” and displacement crisis, whereby 14 million out of 51 million people in Sudan are forced to flee their homes, and nearly 25 million are facing acute hunger. Many Sudanese people reject the ongoing genocide as one that is framed by the media as a “civil war” between the RSF and Sudan’s military. In actuality, the ongoing atrocities in Darfur are a deliberate destruction of the Sudanese people by the RSF, heavily backed by the UAE and other state and non-state actors like the UK and Europe, whose political, financial and logistical support have enabled these ongoing war crimes, mass murder, sexual violence, torture, deliberate starvation and outbreak of diseases. It is not a paradox that amidst the violence and destruction, Sudan’s gold production reached a record high in 2024.
From Sudan to Palestine, Congo to West Papua, and beyond, our struggles are interconnected.
- Learn, educate and speak about Sudan – refuse the silence and misinformation. Listen to the Dugout Podcast and Movement Memos on Sudan.
- Donate and mobilise to support Sudanese communities resisting extermination and displacement. Support and donate to a list of campaigns: Sudan Funds, and here.
- Follow the calls from Sudanese people to boycott the UAE and its products.
Follow NL-based Sudanese groups: Yalla for Sudan, Sudanese Refugees Organisation, and other accounts: @bsonblast, @forsudaneseliberation, @red_maat.
See: After partnering with Israel, Google Cloud supports AI ambitions of UAE, accused of complicity in Sudan genocide at Prism.
Image via the original article.