• With apparent support from the UAE, Colombian private military contractors have deployed to Sudan to support the abusive Rapid Support Forces.
• The deployment adds to evidence of UAE military support for the Rapid Support Forces, which have committed widespread atrocities in Sudan.
• Other countries should push for investigations, capable of leading to sanctions, into all those, including UAE officials, against whom there is credible evidence of providing military assistance to the Rapid Support Forces.

(Beirut) – Colombian private military contractors, apparently hired by a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based company, transited through UAE military bases before being deployed to Sudan to support the abusive Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. This is further evidence indicating that the UAE is assisting or otherwise substantially contributing to the Rapid Support Forces’ capacity to commit war crimes.

The 83-page report, “From Bogotá to El Fasher: UAE’s Role in the Deployment of Colombian Fighters and Other Backing to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan,” presents evidence showing that, since 2024, the Abu Dhabi-based security company, Global Security Services Group (GSSG) hired hundreds of Colombian private military contractors who deployed to Sudan to fight alongside the RSF, which is battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Human Rights Watch found evidence that private military contractors were in El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, in October 2025, when the RSF took over the city and committed widespread killings and rape. The UN International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan has said that these events bore “the hallmarks of genocide.”

“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.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed two Colombian private military contractors who deployed to Sudan, one former employee of GSSG, eight El Fasher residents, and seven other sources, including former Colombian military officers, reviewed corporate records and official documents, and verified and geolocated photographs and videos posted online, including by the contractors themselves. Some showed contractors fighting alongside the RSF in Sudan and training in UAE military facilities.

The recruitment effort was ostensibly led by private entities, but Human Rights Watch found that the recruits transited through a UAE military base in Ghiyathi and an apparent military facility in Al Wathba, both in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

One contractor said that when he arrived in the UAE, he skipped immigration controls,“They didn’t stamp our passports.” He said that with other contractors, he was immediately transferred to the Ghiyathi base, where he received training by Emirati nationals. Human Rights Watch also identified four other contractors who, verified photos and videos show, made stopovers in the UAE before their deployment to Sudan. The first public evidence of the Colombians’ presence in Sudan came through videos posted on social media in November 2024, 19 months into the conflict. The Joint Forces of the Armed Movements, a coalition of armed groups allied with the Sudanese Armed Forces, which filmed the videos, had intercepted a convoy of Colombians who had entered Sudan from Libya.

The Colombians were found to have Bulgarian-made 81mm shells, which the French broadcaster France 24 reported were diverted from UAE armed forces stocks. These were one of three types of military equipment that ended up in the hands of the RSF in violation of their end-user agreements, based on research by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and France 24.

Human Rights Watch verified and geolocated videos that show foreign private military contractors, apparently Colombian, fighting in El Fasher during the RSF’s capture of the city in fall of 2025. The city’s residents experienced widespread abuses, including killings, rape, starvation, and targeting of people with disabilities. Six witnesses said they saw “white” foreign fighters at the site of mass RSF killings wearing the same protective equipment as seen in these videos: helmets, body armor, and kneepads.