A United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based company has reportedly hired hundreds of private Colombian military contractors and sent them to Sudan for support Fast support staff (RSF), Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report published on Monday.
The recruitment of Colombian private military contractors once again demonstrates the role of the United Arab Emirates in providing military support to the RSF, which has been repeatedly accused of atrocities in Sudan, said Mausi Segun, managing director of Africa at HRW. The Abu Dhabi-based security company Global Security Services Group (GSSP) has been operating since 2024 hired hundreds Colombian private entrepreneurs to be sent to Sudan. Recruitment efforts are private. HRW noted that the recruits all passed through a UAE military base in Ghiyathi and a military facility in Al Wathba.
The report raised further concerns about the use of children in armed conflict. One Colombian contractor interviewed trained RSF recruits at its main base in South Darfur. The contractor reported that a number of the recruits were children. The Geneva Convention prohibits the recruitment and use of children under the age of 15 in active armed conflicts. According to the group, the UN Secretary-General reviewed 16 cases involving the RSF’s recruitment of children.
According to the group, the UAE authorities and the GSSP have not responded to their allegations. However, the UAE has been around for a long time disputed any military support for the parties to the conflict in Sudan.
The human rights group is calling on the international community, including the EU, to pressure the UAE to end its support for the RSF by ending military cooperation and arms sales. Segun added: “Other countries must stop accepting the UAE’s blanket denials of support to the RSF, which contradict the facts, and should end impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry has also done this previously accused that the UAE supports the RSF. It has also sought to take the UAE to the International Court of Justice over its alleged complicity in RSF’s actions in Darfur. However, the court refused to hear the case due to lack of jurisdiction. This is because the UAE reserved the jurisdiction clause when signing the agreement Genocide Convention.
The Sudanese army and the RSF have been waging a civil war for three years. The Sudan war has caused one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises and mass murders. 34 million people urgently need humanitarian assistance, the United Nations recently warned.
