UAE accused of training Colombian mercenaries for Sudan's war

CAIRO: The United Arab Emirates trained Colombian mercenaries before sending them to fight alongside a notorious paramilitary group in Sudan's devastating war, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

Its new report is the latest by an international rights group accusing the wealthy Gulf monarchy of financially and militarily aiding the Rapid Support Forces that have been widely accused of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.



The United Arab Emirates denied the latest accusations in response to questions from The Associated Press.

Report adds to a 'growing body of evidence'

"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 HRW's Africa Division.

Sudan's war broke out on April 15, 2023, when a power struggle between the military and RSF exploded into fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the sprawling northeastern African country.

The RSF was born out of feared Arab Janjaweed militias that were notorious for atrocities in the early 2000s against people identifying as East or Central African in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

In the new report, Human Rights Watch said hundreds of Colombian mercenaries were trained by Emirati nationals at a military base in Al Dhafra region, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, and at another facility in Abu Dhabi, before being deployed to Sudan to fight alongside the RSF.

The rights group quoted an unnamed Colombian mercenary as saying he trained RSF recruits at camps around Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur, in April last year.

Many recruits were "young children," the mercenary was quoted as saying. The rights group said it interviewed another Colombian mercenary and other sources, including former Colombian military officers.

A United Nations panel of experts in a report to the UN Security Council in September said Colombian mercenaries fought in multiple areas across Sudan, including in Khartoum, its sister city of Omdurman and the regions of Darfur and Kordofan, among other areas. The experts said the mercenaries' combat roles included the operation of RSF drones, artillery and armored vehicles, as well as participation in direct attacks.

RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged in video comments in February that Colombian mercenaries have aided his group to operate drones.

Report urges countries to press the UAE to end RSF support

The mercenaries were hired by Abu Dhabi-based Global Security Services Group, a private security firm, Human Rights Watch said. According to the UN experts, the firm was chaired by Mohammed Hamdan Al-Zaabi, an Emirati national.

Human Rights Watch said Emirati authorities and the firm didn't respond to its requests for comment. The UAE's Foreign Ministry, however, denied the allegations in an email to the AP.

"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," the ministry said.

It said any private individual or entity, Emirati or foreign, that provides support to non-state armed groups "would be doing so without state authorization, in violation of Emirati law, and would be subject to criminal investigation and prosecution."

Human Rights Watch said it verified videos showing mercenaries, apparently Colombian, fighting alongside the RSF when it captured the Darfur city of el-Fasher in October in an offensive the UN-commissioned experts said bore "the hallmarks of genocide." At least 6,000 people were killed in three days, according to the UN.

The rights group called for the international community, including the European Union, to press the UAE to end its support to the RSF though suspending military cooperation and arms sales.

"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," Segun said.

The US has imposed sanctions on many people and firms based in Colombia's capital, Bogota, over allegedly recruiting and deploying Colombian mercenaries to fight with the RSF. But it hasn't addressed reports of the UAE's alleged support to RSF which it accused of repeatedly carrying out "summary executions, ethnically motivated attacks, sexual and gender-based violence, and torture throughout areas under its control" during the war.

At least 59,000 people have been killed over the three years, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, known as ACLED. The US-based tracking group, however, said its toll was almost certainly an underestimate given the difficulty in reporting.
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