Leaked UN report ‘establishes conclusively’ that UAE hired Colombian mercenaries for Sudan’s RSF

A confidential UN investigators’ report says it “establishes conclusively” that the UAE hired Colombian mercenaries to fight for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The findings matter because they detail alleged foreign support for the RSF, which has been accused of grave abuses, and come as senior Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh campaigns to become the UN’s next secretary-general.

The report says UAE-based Global Security Services Group moved the mercenaries through Libya, Somalia and Chad, with training in the UAE and at a UAE-linked base in Bosaso, Somalia. It says they provided drone, artillery and infantry support in Darfur, including during the RSF’s capture of el-Fasher after a siege lasting more than 500 days. The UAE and other entities named deny wrongdoing; the UAE says it rejects allegations concerning the Sudan conflict.