Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, a long-serving UAE diplomat and foreign affairs official, has an extensive record of denying and whitewashing the country's rights abuses in Sudan and Yemen, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 21, 2026, the UAE formally nominated Nusseibeh to be the new United Nations secretary-general.
"For years, Lana Nusseibeh has used her position to vehemently deny and divert attention from the UAE's war crimes in Yemen and support for the abusive Rapid Support Forces in Sudan," said Bruno Stagno Ugarte, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch. "Her disinformation about the UAE's rights record, particularly her dismissal of the UN's own reports documenting the UAE's links to the RSF, has seriously undermined justice and accountability for the victims."
Nusseibeh has repeatedly denied that the UAE provides military support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, while refusing to address clear evidence to the contrary. The RSF, engaged in a conflict with the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), is responsible for widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity, including as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region. The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan concluded that their assault on the town of El Fasher "bore the hallmarks of genocide."
In September 2024, Nusseibeh said in a letter to the editor of The Economist that, "[T]he UAE is not providing weapons or any other support to the Rapid Support Forces or any of the warring parties in Sudan." The letter followed the publication of the first UN Panel of Experts on Sudan's report, which included conclusions of "credible allegations" that the UAE was providing military support to the RSF through Chad. A UAE government letter from December 2023 in the report annex claims that flights from the UAE to Chad transported humanitarian assistance to Sudanese civilians. The letter is unsigned but bears the letterhead of the Permanent Mission of the UAE to the UN in New York. Nusseibeh was the head of the UAE's mission from 2013 until April 2024.
In April 2024, in response to accusations from the government of Sudan that the UAE was providing the RSF with military, logistical, and political support, Nusseibeh said in a statement that the "claims were baseless" and affirmed the UAE's categorical rejection "of the false allegations." In July 2024, asked by CNN whether the UAE was arming the RSF, Nusseibeh replied: "No, those allegations are categorically untrue. The UAE, as it has done in countless places around the world when there is a humanitarian crisis, has projected humanitarian aid in as quickly as possible and then scaled that way."
In November 2025, as a minister of state, Nusseibeh took part in an Emirati "lobbying blitz" with key European Parliament members that said that the UAE was "playing a constructive role in Sudan" in the lead up to a vote on a resolution condemning atrocities in Sudan, according to Politico. The European Parliament passed the resolution without mention of the UAE's role in the conflict. Several parliamentary sources told Euronews that Nusseibeh "personally lobbied MEPs [members of the European Parliament] in Strasbourg to influence the content of the resolution."
In a subsequent resolution adopted in July 2026, the European Parliament called out the UAE's role in support of the RSF and requested sanctions on a UAE company involved in the hiring and transfer of mercenaries to the group.
A May 2026 Human Rights Watch report found that Colombian private military contractors, apparently hired by a UAE-based company, transited through UAE military bases before being deployed to Sudan to support and fight alongside the RSF, notably during the forces' takeover of the North Darfur capital, El Fasher, during which the RSF committed multiple massacres, widespread sexual violence, and a massive abduction-for-ransom racket. The findings provide further evidence that the UAE has been assisting or otherwise substantially contributing to the RSF's capacity to commit war crimes.
In August, the Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan released a report echoing these findings, concluding "that individuals and entities operating from, registered in, or linked to the United Arab Emirates played a significant role in networks involved in the recruitment, financing, transportation and deployment of foreign military contractors and the provision of military-related support benefiting the Rapid Support Forces." The mission noted "several sources" indicating the presence of Colombian fighters in and around El Fasher before, during, and after its takeover, the operation it had previously concluded "bore the hallmarks of genocide."
Human Rights Watch has also documented the RSF using military equipment-Serbian-made shells equipping an attack drone-that had first been sold to benefit the UAE armed forces.
On October 27, during an interactive dialogue with UN member states and civil society organizations, Nusseibeh was asked about her denials of findings by the Panel of Experts on Sudan and the Fact-Finding Mission. She did not respond directly to a question about whether she would "continue to reject the findings of the very organization [she] seeks to lead." Instead, she stated that she had taken a leave of absence from her post as a UAE minister and would refer any questions about the UAE to the UAE government.
As permanent representative to the UN, Nusseibeh repeatedly defended the UAE as complying with international law during its intervention in Yemen while dismissing evidence of widely documented abuses. Beginning in March 2015, the UAE played a prominent role in a coalition of countries that conducted military operations in Yemen, including by committing over 30 fighter jets to carry out airstrikes, providing naval ships to enforce the coalition's maritime blockade, and supporting abusive local forces.
In 2016, Human Rights Watch documented 58 unlawful Saudi/UAE-coalition airstrikes, killing nearly 800 civilians and hitting homes, markets, hospitals, schools, businesses, and mosques, and the coalition's use of cluster munitions.
In August 2016 and May 2018, Nusseibeh issued statements defending UAE actions in Yemen, claiming that the UAE "takes its own responsibility for upholding international humanitarian law and for protecting civilians very seriously." The 2018 statement was made a few months before the UAE ordered humanitarian organizations in the coastal city of Hodeida to evacuate despite the immense humanitarian needs, while the Saudi/UAE-led coalition sought to take control of the city from the Houthis.
In 2021, the UAE, alongside Saudi Arabia, successfully led a lobbying campaign to end the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts, an international, impartial, and independent body the Human Rights Council had established to report on rights violations and abuses in Yemen.
"Lana Nusseibeh has spent over a decade in roles acting for the UAE government and repeatedly whitewashing their abusive role in Yemen and Sudan, presenting Abu Dhabi as a humanitarian actor while dismissing or obscuring mounting evidence of its role in fueling abuses," Stagno Ugarte said. "Having dismissed and undermined the findings of the UN's own reports, UN member states should be asking tough questions about Nusseibeh's willingness to defend the independence and integrity of the UN and its investigative mechanisms, including those exposing UAE abuses, at a time when these institutions are under attack."
