Sudan's military authorities have accused the United Arab Emirates of recruiting Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, escalating tensions with Abu Dhabi as the country's brutal civil war grinds into its third year.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Sudan’s representative Al-Halif Idriss Al-Halif alleged that "hundreds" of Colombian army veterans had been hired through private security companies in the UAE.
The fighters, referred to locally as 'Desert Wolves', were deployed to Sudan via the Emirati military base in Puntland, Somalia, and through eastern Libya, a stronghold of UAE-backed warlord Khalifa Haftar, according to CGTN Africa.
The letter claimed Khartoum had collected "extensive evidence" of a "systematic campaign by the UAE to undermine the peace and security and the sovereignty of Sudan through the recruitment, financing and deployment of mercenaries to fight along with the RSF".
According to the Financial Times, Sudanese authorities said between 350 and 380 Colombians have been operating with the RSF since November, concentrated mainly in Darfur. Their alleged combat roles included drone operations, artillery and armoured vehicle use, and participation in direct assaults.
The Sudanese say they have recovered training manuals, flight records, and passports bearing UAE entry stamps and photographs.
"Most of the intelligence that they have collected they have taken off the mercenaries themselves they have either killed or captured. There is no reason to doubt the veracity," Cameron Hudson, a former director for African affairs at the US National Security Council, told the FT.
Abu Dhabi strongly denies the allegations, describing them as fabrications. “This is one of many fabricated letters by the [Sudanese authorities], all of which have been systematically discredited with clear evidence,” a UAE official said, quoted by the FT.
The Emirati government argued the claims relied on "social media posts, distortions and fabricated videos, none of which have any verified link to the UAE".
Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst for Crisis Group in Bogota, told the FT the UAE had long recruited Colombian contractors as it expanded its armed forces.
"Because the UAE was building an army from scratch, it was very hard to build a middle-ranking officer class quickly, which is where the Colombians fit in," she said.
The allegations mark a sharp deterioration in relations between Khartoum and Abu Dhabi. The Sudanese government has repeatedly accused the UAE of arming the RSF, while Abu Dhabi has accused Sudan’s military of blocking peace efforts.
The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, has been locked in a brutal war with the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023.
The conflict has killed more than 150,000 people, displaced 12 million, and pushed millions of people to the brink of famine, according to UN agencies. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, while the US has sanctioned Hemedti and accused the RSF of genocide in Darfur.
Sudan has said it will press the case at the UN General Assembly later this month, arguing that Abu Dhabi's alleged role exposes it to potential accountability for war crimes and genocide.