UAE plans to send two battalions of Colombian mercenaries to support RSF militia in Darfur

Report: Sudanese Echoes

A Colombian newspaper revealed the participation of two companies of former Colombian soldiers in the Sudanese war, alongside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The joint force of armed movements had seized, through an ambush, a supply coming from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the RSF militia, led by foreign mercenaries, including Colombians. The seized documents showed passports and cards for Colombians.

The report, prepared by Colombian journalist (Santiago Rodriguez Alvarez), said that there are more than 300 Colombian soldiers looking for wealth, participating in the Sudanese war inside Sudan or on their way to Sudan. The newspaper said that soldiers are contracted for $2,600, while sergeants are paid $3,400.

Soldiers’ Testimonies

The report, which was based on testimonies of former Colombian soldiers who participated in the war, revealed that they were forced to participate in the battles against their will. The soldiers disclosed, in their testimony to the newspaper, that they were hired for one thing and then taken to another place and another job. The mercenary soldiers unveiled to the newspaper that the process of their arrival in Darfur began more than three months ago.

Another retired Colombian military officer in Sudan, whose testimony was provided to La Silla newspaper through audio recordings, said that his unit was about half an hour away from El-Fashir and that it was attacked there by Sudanese forces at the end of October. In that attack, three Colombians were killed and others were wounded.
In the same context, the leader of the Colombian mercenaries in Sudan said in an audio recording to the newspaper that their situation in Sudan is very difficult and complicated, admitting that they were recruited through deception and against their will.

The Colombian-Emirati Company

The leader of the Colombian mercenaries revealed that their recruitment process was carried out by a Colombian company called the International Security Education Services Agency (A4AI), adding that the job offer they were given was to provide security services for the oil infrastructure in the Emirates.

The company was founded in Colombia in 2017 by a former officer in the Colombian army.
The report stated, based on the testimonies of the soldiers, that the one leading the operation is the retired Colonel in the Colombian army, Alvaro Quijano, who was dismissed from the Colombian army for his involvement in working with drug cartels in Colombia. The soldiers confirmed that they did not receive a copy of the work contracts they signed and were forced to sign confidentiality clauses of the contract.

Salary Value

The soldiers told the newspaper that they left Colombia for the Emirates in several batches to Abu Dhabi and Dubai and from there they headed to Libya. According to two sources, who testified to La Silla, they left the Emirates by plane to Benghazi, “There they took us out of the back of the airport so that we could bypass the normal controls and then put us in shelters that we were told were built by Gaddafi and were official facilities for the Libyan authorities.”, they said. One retired military officer told La Silla that when he arrived in Libya, he began to hear that the final destination would be the Sudan and that they would go there to support an armed group that sought to overthrow the official authority of that country. The plan was for three battalions of Colombian mercenaries, numbering between 1,500 and 1,800, to arrive in Sudan. “I want to go back, but we can’t do anything here. The men who rule here are these blacks. We hope nothing happens to us. I pray to God to get us out of here,” said a Colombian soldier.