Atrocities in Sudan backed by Colombian mercenaries trained at UAE bases, says report

Columbian mercenaries who helped carry out atrocities in Sudan were trained at Emirati bases in the country, according to a new report.

Human Rights Watch said it had evidence that special military contractors sent Colombians to the north African country to back the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary in their fight against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

The report said that since 2024, Global Security Services Group (GSSG), an Abu Dhabi-based security company, has hired hundreds of Colombian private military contractors who deployed to Sudan to fight alongside the RSF.

The contractors had transited through Emirati bases in Sudan to join the fighting. HRW said this constituted further evidence of Emirati complicity in violence carried out by the RSF, who are accused of genocide, mass sexual assault and other war crimes in Sudan.

The rights group said it has strengthened the case for taking action against the UAE while it continued to support the RSF.

“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, which have repeatedly carried out heinous atrocities in Sudan,” said Mausi Segun, executive director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch.

“Governments should publicly demand that the UAE stop supplying weapons, equipment, personnel, and other military support to the Rapid Support Forces.”

Numerous rights groups and international bodies have accused the RSF of war crimes.

Allegations of genocide

A report by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRI) in March corroborated UN allegations of genocide in the Darfur region, saying the RSF waged a campaign of starvation against the city of el-Fasher, razing dozens of farming villages and devastating crop production around the city.

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Once the RSF stormed into el-Fasher, its fighters raped, executed and extorted residents in large numbers, according to extensive interviews conducted by Middle East Eye and later reports from the UN and Yale’s HRL.

The presence of Colombians in Sudan first became known through videos posted on social media in November 2024.

An armed group associated with the SAF posted the videos showing that they had intercepted a convoy of Colombians who had entered Sudan from Libya.

While the UAE continues to deny the allegations, MEE has reported extensively on its support for the RSF, citing evidence including satellite imagery, flight logs, weapons serial numbers and multiple sources.

HRW researcher Joey Shea explained that the Colombian contractors transited through sensitive UAE military and government facilities before they were deployed to Sudan to support the RSF.

“We also found linkages between the Colombian contractors and grave abuses on the ground,” she told MEE.

“So one contractor who I spoke to told me that he helped to support the training of child soldiers, boys as young as 13-14 years old.”

Shea added that the relationship between the UAE and Colombia mercenaries went back as far as 2011.

“In 2011, The New York Times came out with some reporting that [Abu Dhabi ruler] Mohammed bin Zayed had been building a sort of foreign legion of up to 800 Colombian private contractors to be part officially of the UAE armed forces,” she said.

“And one, private, retired contractor with whom we spoke said that he was part of that recruitment drive, and he told us that there was nothing clandestine about this operation that it was very public, that he received a proper work contract to be in the UAE.”