UN Report: UAE Firm Hired Hundreds of Colombian Mercenaries to Fight in Sudan’s War

A confidential United Nations report says an Abu Dhabi-based security company recruited hundreds of former Colombian soldiers to fight alongside Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in one of the world’s worst wars. The findings, first reported by The New York Times on 5 November 2026, have put fresh pressure on the United Arab Emirates just as its candidate campaigns to lead the United Nations itself.

The report was submitted to the UN Security Council in early November. It names the Global Security Services Group (GSSG), a private security firm based in Abu Dhabi, as the main recruiter and organiser of the Colombian fighters. According to the newspaper’s account of the report, the company has close political, business and family links to senior figures in the UAE leadership.

The UAE has strongly denied the claims. It says it does not support any side in Sudan’s war and that GSSG sent no fighters to the country. But the new report adds to a growing pile of evidence gathered by UN investigators and human rights groups over the past two years.

What the UN report says

Sudan’s war began in April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions have been forced from their homes. The fighting has been especially brutal in Darfur, in western Sudan.

According to the confidential UN report, GSSG recruited hundreds of former Colombian military personnel and organised them into a combat unit known as the "Desert Wolves" — or "Lobos del Desierto" in Spanish. The fighters reportedly served as infantry, operated artillery, flew drones, drove military vehicles and trained RSF fighters.

The report describes GSSG as having close connections to the UAE’s ruling family. It was founded by a senior official in the UAE Presidential Court, and its business reportedly includes providing security services to government ministries, including the foreign affairs and presidential affairs ministries.

Earlier investigations have put the scale of the operation even higher. Estimates cited in previous reports range from several hundred to around 2,000 Colombian contractors deployed over time. A separate UN fact-finding mission reported in September 2026 that up to 2,000 former Colombian military contractors had operated alongside RSF units in Darfur and Kordofan, working with combat drones, artillery and other advanced weapons.

The route into Sudan

The report also maps out how the fighters reached the battlefield. According to the findings, Colombian recruits were moved through a network of transit points connected to Emirati allies and partners. The routes ran through Bosaso, a port city in Somalia, and through areas of eastern Libya controlled by forces aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar, before the fighters were transported into Sudan.

Earlier UN investigations found that the Colombian contractors received military training at two facilities in the UAE before they were deployed. Human Rights Watch, in a detailed report published in May 2026, found that the men were recruited by a Colombia-based agency called A4SI, signed contracts with GSSG, and were then moved through UAE military facilities, including Ghiyathi and Al Wathba, on their way to Sudan.

A July 2026 report by UN investigators documented the training arrangements — but it was never made public. According to The New York Times, Bahrain objected to its publication, allegedly at the UAE’s request. Abu Dhabi has rejected suggestions that it sought to influence Bahrain.

The new report, submitted to the Security Council in early November, gives the most detailed account yet of the recruitment and deployment network. It extends the scrutiny beyond earlier allegations about weapons, drones and other military assistance to the RSF, and focuses on the people who were allegedly sent to fight.

El Fasher and the human cost

The reported deployment matters most because of where the Colombian fighters are said to have fought: around El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

El Fasher was under siege by the RSF for more than 500 days before it fell in October 2025. The takeover was accompanied by widespread killings, sexual violence, abductions and other abuses against civilians. UN investigators have said the assault bore the "hallmarks of genocide."

A July 2026 UN experts’ report said Colombian mercenaries established a base in Nyala, in South Darfur, in March 2025 and took part in operations supporting the RSF’s campaign around El Fasher. The contractors reportedly operated drones and helped with military planning during the siege and the capture of the city.

The presence and role of foreign fighters in the offensive has been documented through witness accounts, social media footage, geolocation analysis, corporate records and interviews with former contractors, according to the reports.

The allegations also raise concerns about the recruitment and training of children by RSF forces. Previous investigations have pointed to foreign contractors’ involvement in training activities involving child soldiers. Recruiting and using children in hostilities is prohibited under international law.

What Human Rights Watch found earlier

The UN report is not the first investigation to link the UAE to Colombian fighters in Sudan. In May 2026, Human Rights Watch published an 83-page report titled From Bogotá to El Fasher: The UAE’s Role in the Deployment of Colombian Fighters and Other Backing to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan.

The organisation documented how GSSG apparently hired hundreds of Colombian former military personnel from 2024 onwards. Its researchers examined interviews with former contractors, residents of El Fasher, corporate records, employment documents, photographs, videos and geolocation data.

Human Rights Watch concluded that the evidence indicated the UAE was assisting or substantially contributing to the RSF’s capacity to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law. It called for investigations into GSSG and the people involved in the recruitment network, possible targeted sanctions, and measures to end external military support to the RSF.

The latest UN disclosures reinforce those findings. They add an official UN investigation to the evidence already gathered by human rights researchers, and they connect the recruitment network directly to a company with reported links to the UAE leadership.

Why this matters for the UN’s top job

The timing of the disclosures is awkward for the UAE. On 21 October 2026, it formally nominated its senior diplomat Lana Zaki Nusseibeh to become the next UN secretary-general, succeeding António Guterres, whose term ends on 31 December.

Nusseibeh previously served as the UAE’s permanent representative to the UN from 2013 to 2024, and she has been one of the country’s most prominent diplomatic voices. She is among several candidates in the race to lead the world body.

But her record has already drawn criticism from human rights organisations. On 28 October, Human Rights Watch published a statement titled UAE: UN Secretary-General Candidate Whitewashed Abuses, accusing Nusseibeh of repeatedly denying and diverting attention from evidence of her government’s alleged support for the RSF, as well as abuses linked to UAE involvement in Yemen.

Nusseibeh has repeatedly rejected allegations that the UAE provides military, logistical or financial support to the RSF, maintaining that her country’s engagement in Sudan is humanitarian and aimed at ending the conflict. In 2024, she told CNN that the accusations were "categorically untrue."

During an interactive dialogue with UN member states and civil society representatives on 27 October, she was challenged over her previous denials of UN findings about the UAE’s alleged links to the RSF. She did not directly answer whether she would continue rejecting those findings if appointed secretary-general. Instead, she said she had taken leave from her UAE government responsibilities while pursuing the candidacy and would refer questions about the UAE to its government.

Cameron Hudson, a former CIA analyst and director for African affairs at the US National Security Council, told The New York Times that the continued Emirati denials of support to the RSF "make a mockery" of the investigative mechanisms that Nusseibeh now seeks to lead. "She played a significant role in obfuscating her government’s contribution to atrocities in Sudan," he said. "That ought to disqualify her from any further consideration."

The Sudanese government has also challenged her nomination. A representative of Sudan’s permanent mission to the UN questioned her independence, pointing to her previous rejection of international findings about alleged Emirati support for the RSF. Sudan has consistently accused Abu Dhabi of financing, arming and providing political and logistical backing to the paramilitary group. The UAE rejects the accusations.

To be appointed secretary-general, a candidate must win at least nine votes from the 15 members of the Security Council and avoid a veto from any of its five permanent members: the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France and Russia.

What the UAE says

The UAE has consistently denied providing military assistance to either side in Sudan’s war. It has rejected allegations that it recruited, financed, trained or facilitated the deployment of foreign fighters to support the RSF.

In response to the latest allegations, an Emirati spokesperson told The New York Times that the UAE did not support any party to the conflict and did not permit its territory to be used for recruiting, training, financing or facilitating the transit of foreign fighters to Sudan.

The UAE also maintained that GSSG had not deployed mercenaries to Sudan and had not violated Emirati laws and regulations. It said its involvement in Sudan was humanitarian.

What happens next

The UN Security Council now faces continued pressure to deal with the flow of weapons, foreign personnel and military technology that is sustaining Sudan’s war. The latest findings raise broader questions about accountability for outside actors whose alleged assistance has allowed the warring parties to keep fighting despite mounting civilian casualties and repeated international calls for a ceasefire.

For Nusseibeh’s candidacy, the disclosures add a new layer of scrutiny. Observers say they could intensify concerns about whether a candidate nominated by a government facing allegations of involvement in a devastating war can credibly oversee the international organisation responsible for investigating violations and promoting accountability.

The report itself remains confidential, so the full evidence behind it has not been made public. But the fact that its findings have now been disclosed — after an earlier UN report on the same subject was blocked from publication — means the questions are unlikely to go away.

Sudan’s war is already one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The claim that foreign fighters were recruited, trained and deployed through an organised international network will now be tested in the open, in the Security Council and in the contest to lead the United Nations.

Frequently asked questions

Who are the "Desert Wolves"?

According to the confidential UN report, they are a battalion of former Colombian military personnel recruited by the Abu Dhabi-based Global Security Services Group (GSSG) to fight alongside Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces. The unit is also known by its Spanish name, "Lobos del Desierto."

What is GSSG?

The Global Security Services Group is a private security company based in Abu Dhabi. The UN report describes it as having close political, business and family links to senior figures in the UAE leadership. It was founded by a senior official in the UAE Presidential Court.

How many Colombian fighters were involved?

The UN report says hundreds were recruited. Earlier investigations cited estimates ranging from several hundred to around 2,000 Colombian contractors deployed over time.

What does the UAE say?

The UAE denies providing military assistance to either side in Sudan’s war. It says GSSG deployed no mercenaries, that its territory was not used to recruit, train, finance or move foreign fighters, and that its involvement in Sudan is humanitarian.

Why does this affect the race for UN secretary-general?

The UAE has nominated senior diplomat Lana Nusseibeh to succeed António Guterres. Human rights groups and the Sudanese government have questioned her candidacy because she has repeatedly denied evidence of the UAE’s alleged support for the RSF. The new disclosures have renewed that scrutiny.

When did Sudan’s war start?

The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces erupted in April 2023. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced, with the worst abuses reported in Darfur.

Conclusion

A confidential UN report has given the clearest account yet of how hundreds of Colombian former soldiers were allegedly recruited by a UAE-linked security firm and sent to fight in Sudan’s war. The findings connect the fighters to the siege and fall of El Fasher, one of the conflict’s darkest chapters, and to a recruitment network that ran through the UAE, Somalia and Libya.

The UAE denies everything. But the evidence has now been gathered by UN investigators, documented by Human Rights Watch, and disclosed to the Security Council. It arrives at a sensitive moment, as the UAE’s candidate for UN secretary-general faces questions about her record of denying the very findings the UN’s own investigators produced.

Whether the Security Council acts on the report — and whether it changes the contest for the UN’s top job — will become clear in the weeks ahead. For the people of Sudan, the more urgent question is whether anyone will be held accountable for a war that has already devastated their country.

Sources

• Addis Standard — "UN report says UAE firm hired Colombian mercenaries to fight in Sudan, raising questions over Abu Dhabi’s UN chief bid" (6 November 2026): https://addisstandard.com/un-report-says-uae-firm-hired-colombian-mercenaries-to-fight-in-sudan-raising-questions-over-abu-dhabis-un-chief-bid/
• Human Rights Watch — "From Bogotá to El Fasher: The UAE’s Role in the Deployment of Colombian Fighters and Other Backing to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan" (May 2026, full report PDF): https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2026/05/From%20Bogota%20To%20El%20Fasher%20uae_sudan_full.pdf
• The New York Times — confidential UN report first disclosed 5 November 2026 (as reported by Addis Standard)

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.