The top United Nations court yesterday threw out Sudan's case against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over alleged complicity in genocide during the brutal Sudanese civil war.

Sudan had taken the UAE to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), saying its alleged support for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was contributing to a genocide -- accusations strongly denied by the Emiratis.

But the ICJ said it "manifestly lacked" jurisdiction to rule on the case and threw out it out. A UAE official hailed the judges' ruling.

"This decision is a clear and decisive affirmation of the fact that this case was utterly baseless," Reem Ketait, Deputy Assistant Minister for Political Affairs at the UAE foreign ministry, said in a statement sent to AFP.

Before the ruling, Ketait had accused Sudan of lodging the case in a "cynical attempt to divert attention from their own brutal record of atrocities against Sudanese civilians".