Colombian Contractors Fought for RSF in Sudan After Training in UAE
The war in Sudan has displaced 14 million people and forced 4.4 million to flee the country, with the United Arab Emirates providing support to the Rapid Support Forces that has included the deployment of Colombian private military contractors implicated in atrocities bearing hallmarks of genocide. [2]
Sudan Conflict Overview and Displacement
The war in Sudan has displaced 14 million people and forced 4.4 million to flee the country. [2] The UAE has helped fuel a humanitarian catastrophe that forced 14 million people to flee their homes and 4.4 million to leave Sudan. [2] According to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, 14,000 of them reached Europe in 2024 and 2025, while millions others face racism, abuses or dire humanitarian conditions in neighbouring countries. [2] The RSF is an armed group that has repeatedly carried out war crimes and crimes against humanity in the conflict with Sudan’s military for control of the country. [2]
UAE Support for RSF via Private Contractors
A Colombian private military contractor described being brought clandestinely into the UAE for military training at a UAE base before transiting through eastern Chad en route to Nyala to fight with the RSF. [2] Late one night in April 2025, a Colombian private military contractor was leaving the United Arab Emirates under unusual circumstances. [2] “They brought us in hidden, clandestinely, through the back of the airport,” he told me. “It was very hidden.” [2] He was departing Abu Dhabi after having received military training from Emirati nationals at a UAE military base. [2] That evening, his flight made a quick stopover in eastern Chad before its final destination: Nyala, the capital of south Darfur and de facto capital at the time of the Rapid Support Forces. [2] Hundreds of former Colombian fighters were hired by the Abu Dhabi-based Global Security Services Group, which has strong links to the UAE ruling family, to support the RSF. [2] The contractor was one of hundreds of former fighters from Colombia who, according to a new Human Rights Watch report, were apparently hired by the Global Security Services Group (GSSG) to fight alongside the RSF. [2] The GSSG, an Abu Dhabi-based security company, and its CEO, Mohamed Hamdan Al Zaabi, have strong political, business and familial links with the most senior members of the UAE’s ruling family. [2] The report adds to overwhelming evidence of UAE support to the RSF. [2]
Colombian contractors trained in the UAE before fighting for the RSF in Sudan. — Source: euobserver
Atrocities at El Fasher
Colombian fighters were present at the fall of El Fasher in October 2025 where RSF forces massacred civilians including people with disabilities and abducted others for ransom. [2] Human Rights Watch also located Colombian fighters at the site of grave abuses during the fall of North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher, in October 2025. [2] El Fasher was, until then, the only remaining city in the region still under the control of the Sudanese Armed Forces and its allies. [2] Foreign fighters, most likely the Colombians, stood by while RSF fighters massacred men and women, including people with disabilities, and abducted many for ransom – atrocities in which UN investigators found “hallmarks of genocide.” [2] Emirati authorities have continued to maintain blanket denials. [2] But the UAE is a highly-centralised security state that employs advanced mass surveillance, making it implausible for authorities to deny they did not know these private military contractors had transited through sensitive UAE military and government sites in the UAE before travelling on to Sudan. [2]
Refugee Experiences in Chad
A Sudanese refugee family from Sudan reached safety in an individual tent at the Arkoum extension site in eastern Chad's Ouaddai province, the first time in three years they could sleep without fear. [1] Le mois dernier, pour la première fois depuis trois ans, des réfugiés soudanais - Zara Ahmat Ibrahim et ses quatre enfants - ont pu dormir sans crainte. [1] Ils disposaient enfin de leur propre abri : une tente individuelle dans le site d’extension d’Arkoum, dans la province de Ouaddaï, à l’Est du Tchad. [1] « Dieu merci, j’ai trouvé un toit pour mes enfants. Nous allons pouvoir recon. [1]
Colombian contractors trained at a UAE base before fighting for Sudan's RSF. — Source: thenewarab
EU Response and Policy Critique
The EU has avoided directly naming the UAE in statements on Sudan, citing economic and security relations, and instead refers only to unspecified external actors. [2] The bloc is unwilling to jeopardise its close economic and security relations with the country. [2] Instead, the EU and its member states continue to issue abysmally weak statements referring only to “external actors” fueling the war in Sudan. [2] Diplomats tell us time and again they are pursuing “private engagement” with the UAE on Sudan and other files, including the Emirates’ brutal repression of dissent. [2] But EU concerns over the UAE’s abusive foreign and domestic policies are relegated to wholly ineffective bilateral human rights dialogues, despite calls for more robust approaches. [2] Three years into the Sudan conflict, and nine since the UAE’s arrest of Ahmed Mansoor, its most prominent human rights defender, this approach has clearly failed to move the needle. [2] The EU should finally use the leverage provided by bilateral trade negotiations with the UAE to press its authorities to end support for the RSF, and step up its game to address the country’s abysmal rights record. [2] Toothless statements without direct reference to the UAE are a luxury Sudanese civilians cannot afford. [2] The EU and member states should break their silence, investigate the Global Security Services Group and its CEO, and consider targeted sanctions against them. [2] It also needs to adopt an EU-wide arms embargo against the UAE. [2] The EU cannot genuinely pride itself on providing much-needed humanitarian aid to war-affected civilians in Sudan without acting and calling out the UAE’s role by name. [2] It is in Europe’s interest to stop witnessing further RSF atrocities unfold with the UAE’s support, and it should make clear there will be no impunity both for those responsible for the crimes, and those complicit in them. [2]
Related Regional Security Incidents
Gunfire erupted for nearly two hours around Niamey International Airport in Niger on 18 June 2026, the second such attack on the site in 2026 following an Islamic State-claimed assault in January. [4] Gunfire was reported on the morning of Thursday, June 18, 2026, around Niamey International Airport in Niger. [4] According to several corroborating sources, the shooting lasted for nearly two hours before the situation gradually returned to calm. [4] According to information reported by RFI, armed assailants reportedly managed to enter the airport area. [4] By midday, security forces were still conducting sweep operations in the vicinity to secure the site and identify those responsible for the attack. [4] Authorities have also reinforced security measures at several strategic locations across the capital. [4] Areas surrounding the presidential palace and the prime minister’s office were sealed off by defense and security forces. [4] The incident comes just months after a major attack targeting Niamey Airport and the adjacent military base in late January 2026. [4] That assault, which lasted several hours, was later claimed by the Islamic State group. [4] According to Nigerien authorities, the operation was repelled by the Nigerien Armed Forces (FAN), with support from their Russian partners. [4] The official toll reported four people injured as well as significant material damage. [4] At the time, the head of Niger’s military regime, General Abdourahamane Tiani, had acknowledged a security breach that enabled the attackers to carry out the operation. [4] He stated that one of the attackers’ objectives was to damage the operational air capabilities of the Nigerien military. [4] The events of June 18 have once again raised concerns about the security of the country’s strategic infrastructure, as Niger continues to face persistent security challenges in several regions of its territory. [4]
What to watch next: The second attack on Niamey International Airport in 2026 follows the January assault claimed by the Islamic State group, while Sudanese refugees continue arriving at sites such as the Arkoum extension in eastern Chad and Colombian contractors remain linked to RSF operations at locations including El Fasher.
