# HRW accuses UAE of training Colombian mercenaries for Sudan war
On 2026-05-25, Human Rights Watch accused the United Arab Emirates of training Colombian mercenaries and sending them to fight alongside Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces. The allegation adds to a growing set of claims that the wealthy Gulf state has materially backed the paramilitary group during Sudan’s devastating war.
According to the packet, HRW said hundreds of Colombian mercenaries were trained by Emirati nationals at a military base in the Al Dhafra region near Abu Dhabi and at another facility in the capital before being deployed to Sudan. The rights group said the contractors then fought with the RSF in several parts of the country, including at camps around Nyala in South Darfur and in the assault on el-Fasher.
The stakes are high because the Sudan war has already produced mass death and allegations of atrocities on a huge scale. The conflict began in April 2023 after a power struggle between Sudan’s army and the RSF turned into open fighting in Khartoum and beyond. The packet says UN experts reported Colombian mercenaries operating in multiple regions and using drones, artillery and armored vehicles alongside the RSF.
HRW’s report strengthens the case that the foreign contractor network is not incidental. It also names an Abu Dhabi-based private security company, Global Security Services Group, as the recruiter. That detail is important because it links the alleged operation not just to a state allegation but to a corporate vehicle operating from the UAE.
The UAE denied the accusation. Its foreign ministry said the country does not allow its territory to be used for recruitment, training, financing or transit of foreign fighters and said anyone doing so without authorisation would face criminal investigation and prosecution. That denial means the story is now locked in a familiar pattern: rights groups and investigators alleging state complicity, and the UAE rejecting the charge outright.
The packet also says the rights group verified video of fighters apparently Colombian operating with the RSF during the capture of el-Fasher, where UN-commissioned experts said the offensive had the hallmarks of genocide. That material is especially damaging because it moves the allegation from abstract financing to visual evidence of foreign personnel on the ground.
HRW urged the international community, including the European Union, to press the UAE to end support for the RSF, including by suspending military cooperation and arms sales. The group also said governments should stop accepting blanket denials in the face of what it sees as growing evidence.
For Sudan, the allegation matters because the war’s external backers can extend and intensify the conflict. For the UAE, it deepens scrutiny of its regional role and of the private security networks that can operate around state policy. On 2026-05-25, the accusation added another layer to an already devastating war.
The allegation is likely to reverberate well beyond Sudan because it connects a regional war to contractors, private security firms and an international pipeline of fighters. If the report is borne out, it suggests that the RSF’s battlefield reach has depended partly on foreign training and transport networks. If it is not, the UAE will keep using its denial to argue that critics are treating private actors as state proxies without sufficient proof. Either way, the evidence has raised the political cost of silence for outside governments.
*Event date: 2026-05-25.*
