Macklemore said he canceled a concert in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates’ role «in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis» in Sudan.
Rapper Macklemore said he’s canceled an upcoming concert in Dubai because of the United Arab Emirates’ role «in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis» in Sudan. He cited the UAE’s reported support for that has been at war with government troops there.
The rapper’s announcement reignited attention to the UAE’s role in the war gripping the African nation. While the UAE repeatedly has denied arming the Rapid Support Forces and supporting its leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, United Nations experts reported «credible» evidence in January that the Emirates sent weapons to the RSF several times a week from northern Chad.
A in Sudan for more than a year, after simmering tensions between the country’s military and paramilitary leaders boiled over, and fighting broke out in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading to other regions, including Darfur. Estimates suggest over 18,800 people have been killed since then, while over 10 million have fled their homes and hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine.
The International Rescue Committee, an aid agency, issued a «crisis alert» earlier this summer for the war-torn country, warning that a risk of famine was looming while the lack of political solutions left Sudan on the brink of a «catastrophe of historic scale.» CBS News spoke to several humanitarian groups at the time that said two million people could die of hunger-related causes if the situation in Sudan did not improve, and no additional humanitarian aid entered the country.
