The Emirati vice president is best known as the owner of Manchester City, a top English soccer team. Behind the scenes, he has been described as the “handler” guiding his country’s secret foreign wars.In the weeks leading up to the devastating civil war in Sudan, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, one of the wealthiest men in the Middle East, welcomed a key figure in the chaos to his luxurious palace in the Persian Gulf.
Sheikh Mansour, the brother of the powerful ruler of the United Arab Emirates, is known for his extravagant lifestyle, including his collection of superyachts and racehorses, and his ownership of the successful English soccer team, Manchester City. In 2023, his team in New York was granted approval to build a $780 million soccer stadium in Queens, the first in the city.
However, in February 2023, Sheikh Mansour was openly entertaining a notorious commander from western Sudan, who had seized power in a coup and amassed a fortune through illegal gold mining, while also being accused of committing widespread atrocities.
The two men were not strangers, as Sheikh Mansour had previously hosted the Sudanese commander, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, at an arms fair in the Emirates, where they had toured exhibits of weapons such as rockets and drones. And when the conflict in Sudan erupted in April 2023, Sheikh Mansour played a role in supporting General Hamdan’s forces.
Charities controlled by Sheikh Mansour set up a hospital, claiming to provide aid to civilians. However, this humanitarian effort was also a cover for the Emirati government’s secret operation to smuggle weapons, including drones, to General Hamdan’s group, the Rapid Support Forces (R.S.F.), according to officials from the United States and the United Nations.
According to The New York Times reports, Sheikh Mansour’s involvement in the conflict in Sudan raises questions about the role of wealthy individuals in fueling and perpetuating conflicts around the world.
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