A leading international rights organization, Human Rights Watch (HRW), accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday of acting as a critical recruitment hub and transit point for foreign mercenaries allegedly deploying to Sudan to support the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group implicated in widespread atrocities. The HRW report details a network of Emirati and Colombian security firms covertly recruiting former Colombian soldiers, funneling them through UAE military infrastructure before their arrival on Sudan’s frontlines. The UAE government has strongly denied these accusations, stating any such operations would violate local laws and lack state authorization.
A Network of Covert Recruitment and Transit
HRW’s investigation, spanning interviews with Colombian contractors from March to September 2025, reveals a pipeline targeting ex-military personnel under the guise of specialized technical employment. An Abu Dhabi-based firm, Global Security Services Group, allegedly advertised “drone pilot work in Africa.” UN experts previously noted an Emirati national, Mohammed Hamdan Al-Zaabi, chaired this firm.
Contractors described highly unorthodox transit procedures designed to evade official scrutiny. “They didn’t stamp our passports,” one contractor told HRW, detailing a journey through Abu Dhabi where a bus awaited them to take them to a military base without passport checks.
HRW identified key transit nodes used to move fighters into the conflict zone, including airports across the UAE, Libya, Chad, and Somalia. These findings build upon previous research by the Conflict Insights Group, which highlighted the presence of Colombian contractors operating in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Tactical Training and Domestic Facilities
The investigation alleges that contractors received specialized training at prominent Emirati military facilities, including bases in Ghiyathi, Al Wathba, and the Al Dhafra region. Once prepared, the men were reportedly deployed to Sudan to provide the RSF with critical technical capabilities, serving as infantry, artillerymen, drone pilots, and vehicle operators.
Open-source intelligence and leadership admissions appear to verify these deployments. In February 2025, RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged in video comments that Colombian mercenaries had aided his group in operating drones.
Furthermore, a United Nations panel of experts reported to the UN Security Council in September 2025, stating that Colombian mercenaries fought across multiple operational theaters, including Khartoum, Omdurman, Darfur, and Kordofan. One unnamed contractor quoted by HRW admitted to training RSF recruits at camps around Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur, noting that many recruits were “young children.”
Eyewitness Accounts of Battlefield Atrocities
The presence of foreign contractors links them directly to theaters of gross human rights violations. International outrage intensified following the RSF’s violent capture of the strategic Darfur city of el-Fasher, an offensive UN-commissioned experts stated bore “the hallmarks of genocide.”
The United Nations Human Rights Office estimates that over 6,000 people were killed within the first three days of the RSF offensive on el-Fasher. Residents and survivors have placed foreign fighters directly at the scenes of these mass killings.
“In November and December 2025, six el-Fasher residents told Human Rights Watch they saw people they believed were Colombians in the city in October 2025, when mass killings were taking place,” the HRW report states. A survivor detained by the RSF reported seeing “foreign fighters” who “looked on silently” as RSF fighters opened fire on crowds. Another resident recalled seeing “white fighters” alongside RSF units during the execution of three individuals, stating, “They were there when the executions happened, but they didn’t execute.”
Documented Weaponry and Financial Ties
Battlefield recoveries provide further evidence for the allegations. HRW reported that munitions belonging to the UAE armed forces were discovered inside Sudan following the capture of several Colombian mercenaries. The rights group traced tracking data for the weapons, finding some were manufactured in Serbia and Bulgaria but purchased directly by the UAE.
“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 HRW’s Africa Division.
The phenomenon has drawn sharp condemnation from Colombia. Colombian President Gustavo Petro previously called the mercenaries “spectres of death” and described their recruitment as a “form of human trafficking.”
Blanket Denials and Legal Distancing
The Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a firm rejection of the report’s conclusions. The ministry stated that the nation maintains strict protocols against foreign fighter facilitation.
“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,” the ministry said in a statement. Emirati officials emphasized that any domestic or foreign entity operating such a network would face severe legal consequences.
“Where allegations have been made about specific entities, the relevant authorities have investigated, including by making inquiries with companies cited in open sources,” the foreign ministry said. “Any individual or entity – Emirati or foreign – that was to act in a way that could reasonably be interpreted as providing operational support to an armed non-State actor would be doing so without state authorization, in violation of Emirati law, and would be subject to criminal investigation and prosecution.”
The ministry added that the country “remains committed” to working with international partners to alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people, secure a lasting ceasefire, and help create an “inclusive, Sudanese-owned transition to an independent civilian-led government.”
International Pressure and the Humanitarian Toll
The conflict erupted on April 15, 2023, stemming from a power struggle between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which evolved from the Janjaweed militias responsible for atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s. The human cost of the war continues to mount rapidly, with estimates of fatalities ranging from 59,000 to over 150,000, and more than 12.9 million people displaced.
The international response to the mercenary pipeline has triggered selective punitive measures. The United States imposed sanctions on a network of individuals based in Bogota, accusing them of recruiting former soldiers for the Sudan conflict. However, Washington has not directly penalized the UAE despite mounting reports of its logistics role.
Rights advocates are now calling for an immediate suspension of military cooperation with the Gulf state. “Other countries need to stop accepting the UAE’s blanket denials of support to the RSF, which fly in the face of the facts, and should put an end to its impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Segun.
Paramilitary Accountability and Next Steps
RSF leadership has pushed back against claims of institutional impunity. RSF leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo last year declared an investigation into violations committed by his soldiers during the capture of el-Fasher. It remains unclear if internal reviews or U.S. sanctions will slow the influx of foreign personnel.
Human rights groups are urging the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations to apply direct diplomatic pressure on Gulf partners to disrupt the private contractor pipeline entirely.
Continental Ramifications and the Call for African Sovereignty
The exposure of extra-continental mercenary networks highlights a critical breakdown in regional security architectures. For audiences across Ghana and the broader African continent, external military interference threatens to undermine continental self-determination and deepens long-term state fragmentation.
The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council has repeatedly expressed grave concerns over external meddling. Critics point out that parallel diplomatic tracks led by outside powers frequently dilute continental leverage. The use of proxy forces and outsourced combat personnel complicates the AU’s mandate of finding local, democratic solutions to African conflicts.
Beyond geopolitical instability, the prolonged war strains West African and continental logistics. Displacement on this scale fuels regional migration pressures and resource competition. The flow of unaccounted munitions and private security networks sets a dangerous precedent, alarming security analysts who fear the normalization of corporate warfare on African soil.
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