A United Arab Emirates-based company recruited Colombian private military contractors, trained them at Emirati military facilities, and deployed them to Sudan to support the Rapid Support Forces, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Tuesday.
The 83-page report alleges that since 2024, hundreds of Colombian contractors were hired by the Abu Dhabi-based Global Security Services Group and moved through UAE military sites before being sent to Sudan, where they supported the RSF in its war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
The RSF has been accused by rights groups and U.N. investigators of committing atrocities that may amount to war crimes and genocide during its conflict with Sudan’s military, which began in April 2023. The war has killed an estimated 150,000 people and displaced more than 12.9 million, according to international estimates.
According to HRW, the first public evidence of the Colombians’ presence in Sudan appeared in social media videos posted in November 2024, 19 months into the conflict. The Joint Forces of the Armed Movements, a coalition of armed groups allied with the SAF that filmed the videos, said they intercepted a convoy of Colombians who had entered Sudan from Libya.
The report says Colombian military contractors were also present 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.
The HRW found that the recruits passed through a UAE military base in Ghiyathi and an apparent military facility in Al Wathba, both in Abu Dhabi emirate.
“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 HRW.
The HRW urged governments to publicly demand that the UAE stop supplying weapons, equipment, personnel, and other military support to the RSF.
“Civilian victims are paying the cost of the lack of will to call out UAE’s support to the RSF,” Segun said. “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.”
“This report is hoping to end that plausible deniability and force the international community to call out the UAE,” said Joey Shea, senior UAE researcher at HRW.
The UAE has denied allegations that it facilitates the recruitment or transfer of Colombian fighters to Sudan.
“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,” it said in a statement.
