- 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.
One Colombian contractor said he trained RSF recruits at camps around Nyala—used by the RSF as its main base in South Darfur—around April 2025, and that many recruits were “young children.” The Colombian news outlet La Silla Vacía also reported that some contractors had trained RSF child soldiers.
International law prohibits the recruitment or use of children in armed conflict, which is a war crime when children are under 15. The UN secretary-general verified 16 cases of child recruitment by the RSF in 2024 and included the armed group in the UN “list of shame” for grave violations against children in conflict.
Global Security Services Group was founded in 2016 by Ahmed Mohammed al-Humairi, secretary general of the UAE’s presidential court, according to a 2025 report by The Sentry, an investigative nongovernmental organization. Al-Humairi reports to UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and chairman of the presidential court. In 2017, al-Humairi transferred his shares in GSSG to Mohamed Hamdan al-Zaabi, a longtime business partner, The Sentry reported.
GSSG boasts of being “the first private security company in the United Arab Emirates to be awarded an armed security license.” Until recently, it also advertised having key Emirati ministries as its clients and of being “the only armed private security services provider for the UAE government.” A former employee said that senior members of the ruling family were likely among the company’s clients, a claim backed up by a cache of leaked emails examined by Human Rights Watch. Al-Zaabi continues to be in business with al-Humairi.
The UAE has steadfastly denied that it provides military support to the RSF, claiming that the assistance provided is humanitarian. However, Emirati state authorities should and would be fully aware of activities taking place on Emirati territory, and specifically on government property and military bases. The UAE is a highly centralized authoritarian state.
Under UAE law, private security companies are required to coordinate their activities with UAE authorities and ensure that their activities are not in conflict with other security measures.
Human Rights Watch wrote to GSSG, the UAE authorities, and others implicated in the apparent recruitment and deployment of private military contractors or other military support to the RSF with summaries of its findings but did not receive a response.
The UN Security Council should ask its Panel of Experts on the Sudan to investigate GSSG, including al-Zaabi, for their apparent role supporting the RSF in violation of the 2004 UN Security Council arms embargo on Darfur. The council should also ask the Panel to investigate other actors, including private companies that might be aiding the RSF, and impose sanctions on individuals and entities providing such support.
Governments, as well as the European Union and African Union, should also investigate GSSG and al-Zaabi, with a view to adopting targeted sanctions. States should suspend all military cooperation with, and arms sales to the UAE. The EU and other states should use the leverage provided by bilateral negotiations with the UAE to press its authorities to end support for 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.”
