Rapper Macklemore said he canceled a planned concert in Dubai because of the UAE’s role in the “ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis” in Sudan. He cited reports of the UAE’s support for paramilitary groups that continue to fight government forces in the country.
The rapper’s announcement has renewed attention on the UAE’s role in the war rocking the African country. While the UAE has repeatedly denied supplying weapons to the Rapid Relief Forces and supporting its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, UN experts reported in January that they had “credible” evidence that the Emirati was sending weapons to the RSF from northern Chad several times a week.
Sudan has been in the midst of a civil war for more than a year, since simmering tensions between military and paramilitary leaders erupted and fighting erupted in the capital, Khartoum, which has since spread to other parts of the country, including Darfur. Estimates are that more than 18,800 people have been killed since then, more than 10 million have been displaced, and hundreds of thousands are on the brink of starvation.
The aid agency International Rescue Committee issued a “crisis alert” for war-torn Sudan earlier this summer, warning that without a political solution, the country was on the brink of “historic catastrophe” and at risk of starvation. CBS News spoke to multiple humanitarian groups at the time who said that if the situation in Sudan didn’t improve and more humanitarian aid didn’t arrive, 2 million people could die from hunger-related causes.
During a contentious meeting at the UN Security Council in June, the embattled Sudanese government directly accused the UAE of supplying arms to the RSF, with Emirati diplomats angrily telling their counterparts to stop their “subtleties”. The UAE is involved in ongoing peace talks to end the fighting.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no immediate comment on Macklemore’s public statement on Sunday, nor did the Dubai Media Office in the UAE. Organizers announced last week that the show was canceled and refunds would be offered, but did not explain why it was cancelled.
Macklemore performs at Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theatre during the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, Friday, March 17, 2023. Jack Plunkett/InVision/AP
In an Instagram post on Saturday, Macklemore said he has been asked by a group of people to “cancel shows in solidarity with the people of Sudan and boycott doing business in the UAE due to their role in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis.” The Grammy Award-winner has decided to cancel his planned October show in Dubai, saying he will not perform in the country “until the UAE stops arms and funding for the RSF (the Rapid Support Forces, a Sudanese paramilitary group).”
“I know this puts future shows in the region in jeopardy and I would hate to disappoint my fans,” the post continued. “I was very excited too, but I will not be performing there unless the UAE stops providing arms and funding to the RSF.”
Macklemore said he was reconsidering the show, in part because of his recent public support for the Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He recently began performing a song called “Hind’s Hall,” a tribute to Hind Rajab, a young girl killed in the Gaza Strip that Palestinians blame for Israeli forces firing on a civilian car.
“I know this puts my future shows in the region in jeopardy and I would hate to disappoint my fans,” he wrote. “I was very excited too, but I will not be performing there unless the UAE stops providing arms and funding to the RSF.”
He added: “I don’t mean to criticise other artists performing in the UAE, but I ask my colleagues who are planning to perform in Dubai: if we used our platforms to mobilise collective liberation, what could we achieve?”
The RSF was formed from Janjaweed fighters under Sudan’s then-President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades before being overthrown in a popular uprising in 2019. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes including genocide during the Darfur conflict in the 2000s.
Dubai, home to long-haul airline Emirates, the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa and other tourist attractions, has long tried to attract top performers to the city-state for new arenas and other venues, but performers have acknowledged in the past the challenges of performing in the UAE, a hereditary federation of seven emirates where speech is tightly controlled.
This includes American comedian Dave Chappelle, who attracted attention in Abu Dhabi in May when he called the war between Israel and Hamas a “genocide” and also joked about the UAE’s extensive surveillance apparatus.
Macklemore, a 41-year-old rapper born Benjamin Hammond Haggerty in Kent, Washington, won a Grammy in 2014 for his hit song “Thrift Shop.”
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