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UAE-trained Colombians
Human Rights Watch said a UAE-based recruitment pipeline sent Colombian private military contractors to Sudan to support the Rapid Support Forces, with the HRW report alleging that since 2024 hundreds of contractors were hired by the Abu Dhabi-based Global Security Services Group and moved through Emirati military sites before being deployed to support the RSF in its war against the Sudanese Armed Forces.
HRW said it found the first public evidence of the Colombians’ presence in Sudan in social media videos posted in November 2024, 19 months into the conflict, and HRW said the Joint Forces of the Armed Movements filmed the videos and said they intercepted a convoy of Colombians who had entered Sudan from Libya.
HRW also said it found Colombian military contractors in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, during the RSF takeover of the city in October 2025, when widespread killings and sexual violence were reported.
Mausi Segun, executive director of the Africa Division at HRW, said, “The recruitment of Colombian private military contractors adds to a growing body of evidence that the UAE provides military support to the Rapid Support Forces,” and HRW urged governments to publicly demand that the UAE stop supplying weapons, equipment, personnel, and other military support to the RSF.
El Fasher and the link
A separate investigation described how Conflict Insights Group used mobile-phone tracking to follow more than 50 Colombian fighters from April 2025 to January of the same year, and it said the data “conclusively prove for the first time a direct link between the UAE and the RSF.”
Conflict Insights Group director Justin Lynch said the route began at an Emirati military training facility in the Ghiyathi area of Abu Dhabi and extended to fighting fronts in Sudan, and the investigation said it tracked phone movements from Zayed International Airport to Emirati training facilities where devices detected bore Spanish-language inscriptions.
The investigation said some fighters later moved to Nyala, the RSF’s de facto capital, where they logged into Wi‑Fi networks under Spanish names such as 'ANTIAEREO' and 'AirDefense,' and it said the mercenaries’ arrival in El Fasher coincided with the city’s fall in October last year.
The BBC reported that Colombian President Gustavo Petro described the mercenaries as death shadows and called their recruitment a form of human trafficking, while the UAE denied the claims and said, “The UAE does not permit its territory to be used for the recruitment, training, financing or transit of foreign fighters to any conflict, including Sudan.”
Atrocity claims and next steps
HRW said it urged governments to publicly demand that the UAE stop supplying military support to the RSF, and it warned that “Civilian victims are paying the cost of the lack of will to call out UAE’s support to the RSF,” according to Mausi Segun.
The BBC said the Conflict Insights Group report traced mercenaries operating drones who traveled from an Emirati base to Sudan just before the RSF seized El Fasher, and it said the investigation tracked more than 50 mobile phones in Sudan between April 2025 and January 2025 belonging to operators of the Colombian mercenaries, including some in RSF-controlled areas where drones were launched.
The BBC also said the fall of the city coincided with mass atrocities that the ICC prosecutor classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity, while UN investigators described them as having genocidal characteristics.
In HRW’s account, the UAE denied involvement and HRW said it sought comment from the UAE but did not receive a response, while AFP quoted a UAE government official saying, “does not allow using its territory to recruit, train, fund or transport foreign fighters headed to any conflict, including Sudan.”
