The United Arab Emirates is arming and deploying foreign mercenaries to fight alongside Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces in direct violation of international law, according to a devastating new Human Rights Watch report released Monday — the latest revelation in a war that has already displaced millions and push parts of Sudan to the brink of famine.
The 83-page investigation, titled “From Bogotá to El Fasher: UAE’s Role in the Deployment of Colombian Fighters and Other Backing to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan,” documents how hundreds of Colombian private military contractors were hired
Human Rights Watch said its findings amount to further evidence that the UAE is “assisting or otherwise substantially contributing to the Rapid Support Forces’ capacity to commit war crimes.” The report, based on interviews with two Colombian contractors who deployed to Sudan, one former GSSG employee, eight El Fasher residents, and seven additional sources — as well as verified photographs, videos, and corporate records — directly implicates Abu Dhabi in the worst atrocities of Sudan’s 27-month war.
The mercenaries were documented inside El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, in October 2025, when RSF forces overran the city. The UN International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan has since said those events “bore the hallmarks of genocide.” Survivors in El Fasher described widespread killings, sexual violence, and mass displacement during the RSF’s assault — acts Human Rights Watch links in part to the operational support provided by the foreign fighters.
“The recruitment of Colombian private military contractors adds to a growing body of evidence that the UAE provides military support to the RSF, 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.”
The report calls for international investigations capable of leading to targeted sanctions against UAE officials found to have facilitated military support to the RSF, including potential violations of the UN arms embargo on Darfur. The UAE has previously denied involvement in Sudan’s conflict, but the breadth and specificity of the new evidence — including corporate documents and contractors’ firsthand accounts — is expected to intensify diplomatic pressure on Abu Dhabi.
The disclosure comes as Sudan simultaneously confronts a deepening humanitarian catastrophe. The UN warned Monday that 19.5 million Sudanese — roughly 40 percent of the country’s population — face acute hunger, with 135,000 people on the brink of famine in 14 areas across Darfur and Kordofan. Relief agencies have largely been prevented from accessing conflict zones, and fuel shortages driven in part by the wider Iran conflict are compounding distribution challenges ahead of the summer harvest.
Colombian mercenaries are not a new phenomenon in African conflicts — private military contractors trained by Western and Gulf firms have shown up in Libya, Chad, and the Central African Republic in recent years — but the scale and official-sounding chain of command documented in this deployment is among the most detailed yet recorded.
International legal analysts said the HRW findings, if corroborated by ongoing UN investigations, could form the basis for individual war crimes indictments and further sanctions designations. The African Union has so far been divided on the question of Sudan, with some member states maintaining quiet channels to both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The crisis is set to dominate the next UN Security Council briefing on Sudan, expected later this week. Human Rights Watch has formally submitted the report to the UN fact-finding mission and called on member states to invoke the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction where national judicial systems are unable or unwilling to act.