KHARTOUM, Sudan — On the scorched plains of Sudan, battered military trucks roll across the desert as vallenato folk songs — a sound more familiar to Latin America than East Africa — play from a car radio. The unlikely soundtrack belongs to Colombian mercenaries, whose growing role in Sudan’s civil war has now become a global scandal.
Khartoum recently lodged a formal complaint at the UN Security Council, accusing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of financing and deploying Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the powerful paramilitary faction battling Sudan’s national army.
Sudanese authorities said they had “extensive evidence” of a systematic campaign by Abu Dhabi to undermine Sudan’s sovereignty. The UAE rejected the allegations.
The dispute escalated after Sudan’s air force shot down a UAE aircraft in Darfur on 7 August. On board were 40 Colombian mercenaries and a shipment of weapons allegedly bound for the RSF. All were killed. Abu Dhabi again denied involvement, while Colombia’s foreign ministry stayed silent.
Although shocking, Colombian participation in Sudan was already confirmed earlier this year in a UN expert report. Their presence is part of a murky global industry of hired guns.
Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when long-simmering rivalries between the army and the RSF erupted into all-out war.
Estimates suggest between 20,000 and 150,000 people have been killed. More than 14 million have been displaced, famine looms in several regions, and the International Criminal Court is probing atrocities ranging from mass killings to sexual violence.
From Colombia to Bosaso: The Pipeline
The mercenary industry is notoriously hard to track, but Colombian outlet La Silla Vacía estimates as many as 380 Colombians have been recruited since 2024 to join the RSF. Most belong to a battalion known as the Desert Wolves, split into four companies and led by retired soldiers.
“Colombians are excellent value,” said Sean McFate, a US defense scholar. “They’re disciplined, battle-tested, and cost a fraction of what an American would.”
Decades of conflict with guerrillas and cartels left Colombia with thousands of combat-hardened veterans. But many survive on modest pensions of $400–$600 a month. By contrast, mercenary work pays $2,600–$6,000, often promoted through WhatsApp groups.
“When a government doesn’t provide opportunities, soldiers look elsewhere,” said Jose Angel Espinosa, a retired sergeant who now runs a veterans’ association. “We leave the force with a war mindset — it’s the only thing we know.”
Since President Gustavo Petro took office in 2022, more than 22,000 members of Colombia’s security forces have retired, partly due to friction with his government after he replaced the entire military leadership. Analysts say the discontent has fueled the supply of mercenaries.
Most recruits are hired through Colombian private security firms working for Emirati companies. Operations have even been led by a retired Colombian general based in Dubai. Many fighters were misled — told they would guard oil facilities or train troops — only to find themselves pushed into Sudan’s frontlines.
Travel routes reveal just how global this trade has become. At first, mercenaries flew from Abu Dhabi to Benghazi in Libya, where their passports were confiscated before they were dispatched to Sudan. However, as that pathway became treacherous, new routes emerged.
One of them ran directly through the Horn of Africa. Fighters departed Madrid for Ethiopia, traveled onward to the Somali port city of Bosaso, then flew to Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, before finally arriving in Nyala, Darfur — an RSF stronghold.
“Things are ugly here, we’re being held captive,” a Colombian recruit said in an audio recording obtained by La Silla Vacía. Another added bluntly: “This is human trafficking. We were hired for one job and forced into another.”
A global pattern, with no easy solutions
Colombians have appeared on foreign battlefields before. About 20 were involved in the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse. Others are fighting in Ukraine, and previously served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. The UAE itself once contracted hundreds of Colombians to battle against Yemen’s Houthis in 2015.
“The UAE is one of the world’s biggest consumers of mercenaries,” said McFate. “They have money, geopolitical ambitions, and mercenaries are a cheap way to pursue them. Sudan provides demand, the UAE provides financing, and Colombia provides supply.”
After the Emirati plane was shot down, President Petro pledged to introduce legislation banning Colombian mercenary recruitment abroad and launched an investigation. He denounced the practice as “a trade in men turned into commodities to be killed.”
Yet experts warn such efforts won’t solve the underlying drivers. “The law doesn’t address why soldiers accept these jobs — poor pay, lack of reintegration, and the psychological scars of war,” said political analyst Katherin Galindo.
McFate agreed: “This industry is almost impossible to regulate. The UN has proven powerless on mercenaries.”
The use of Colombian fighters highlights how foreign interests deepen Sudan’s agony. Mercenaries give states like the UAE plausible deniability while keeping conflicts alive, making accountability for atrocities even harder.
For Colombian veterans, meanwhile, poverty and neglect at home push them into faraway wars — even through places like Bosaso — where they are treated less as soldiers than as expendable commodities.