International human rights groups and UN monitors are calling for strict accountability following revelations by the Financial Times that foreign mercenaries actively supported paramilitary operations during one of the worst massacres of Sudan’s civil war.
According to an extensive FT report based on interviews with fighters, flight manifests, and device-tracking data, roughly 2,000 Colombian mercenaries—including special forces veterans and former cartel operatives—were deployed to bolster the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Recruited through an Abu Dhabi-based private security firm, the contractors provided advanced technical support, operating surveillance drones, artillery, and anti-aircraft systems during the siege and capture of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
The fall of El Fasher resulted in acts that the UN warned amounted to genocide, with tens of thousands of civilians killed, mass extrajudicial executions, and widespread ethnic violence targeting non-Arab populations.
Digital tracking analysed by the Conflict Insights Group (CIG) placed Spanish-language mobile devices used by Colombian contractors directly inside El Fasher as the city fell, linking the foreign units directly to the battleground.
While several mercenaries interviewed by the FT insisted they did not personally execute non-combatants, human rights experts argue their technical expertise enabled the RSF’s campaign of terror.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing foreign men present while RSF fighters executed fleeing civilians near the city’s perimeter.
Satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts detailed horrific scenes in the aftermath, including pyres of burning corpses whose smoke hung over abandoned neighbourhoods for weeks.
Despite categorical denials from the UAE regarding any involvement in supplying foreign fighters, analysts emphasise that operating multi-national recruitment networks and using Emirati training camps would be impossible without de facto state approval.
The findings highlight a dangerous escalation in the privatisation of the conflict.
With the US Treasury Department placing sanctions on recruitment leaders, rights organisations are pressing international authorities to hold both private security firms and foreign sponsors legally accountable for facilitating war crimes in Sudan.
