Colombian President Gustavo Petro in Bogota on July 20. Mr. Petro has ordered an investigation into reports that allege that Colombian mercenaries are training child soldiers in Darfur.Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters
Growing evidence of mercenary involvement in the Sudan war has prompted Colombian President Gustavo Petro to seek action against the “spectres of death” from his country who are allegedly training child soldiers in Darfur.
The Sudanese army released videos this week that appeared to show foreign mercenaries in the ranks of the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful militia that has been accused of civilian massacres and other atrocities in its two-year battle against the army.
The army said the foreigners were among an estimated 80 Colombian mercenaries who had joined the RSF in its prolonged siege of the Darfur city of El Fasher in western Sudan. The army said it had killed several of the Colombians, including one who was serving as an RSF commander in the city.
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In a separate report on Wednesday, Sudanese state television said at least 40 Colombian mercenaries were killed when the army destroyed an airplane landing with weapons and other supplies at the Darfur city of Nyala, an RSF operations hub.
Mr. Petro swiftly ordered an investigation and called for the urgent passage of legislation to ban mercenaries. “They are spectres of death,” the Colombian leader said in a social media post on Wednesday night.
“The bosses who send young men to kill and be killed for nothing are murderers,” he said. “It is also a form of human trafficking, turning men into commodities for killing.”
Soldiers from a Rapid Support Forces unit in the East Nile province of Sudan in June, 2019. The Sudanese army released videos this week that appeared to show foreign mercenaries in the RSF's ranks.Hussein Malla/The Associated Press
Mr. Petro said the report of 40 deaths is unconfirmed. He said he has asked Colombia’s ambassador in Egypt to investigate the number of deaths and to see whether the remains of any Colombians could be returned to their home country.
Colombian mercenaries at RSF camps near Nyala have been giving military training to large numbers of children, including some as young as 10, according to an investigative report published this week by a Colombian news site, La Silla Vacía.
The report included several photos of foreigners in military uniforms, identified as Colombian mercenaries, working with young trainees who appeared to be children.
It also contained an account from one of the Colombians, who said the mercenary operation was funded by the United Arab Emirates. He told the media outlet that he found the training of child soldiers to be sad and ugly, since the children are quickly killed when they reach the battlefront. The children were trained to use assault rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, he said.
The controversy over the Colombians in Sudan has highlighted the growing use of mercenaries in many of Africa’s wars. Hundreds of thousands of mercenaries, from countries in Africa and beyond, have become involved in the Sudan war, according to a statement by Sudan’s Foreign Ministry this week.
The Foreign Ministry said it has proof that the Colombian mercenaries are “sponsored and financed” by the United Arab Emirates. The mercenaries who were killed in Nyala this week were flying on a UAE airplane, it said.
An army soldier in front of the Republican Palace in Khartoum in March after it was taken over by the Sudanese army.The Associated Press
There have been widespread reports for years that the UAE government is supporting the RSF with regular shipments of weapons and other supplies, but the UAE has repeatedly denied the accusation. It has also denied any connection to the Colombian mercenaries.
The role of the Colombians first emerged in public last November when pro-government fighters stopped an illegal weapons convoy in northern Darfur. They released videos showing that the convoy was accompanied by Colombians with UAE visas in their passports.
A few days later, a report by La Silla Vacía said at least 300 Colombian mercenaries, from a private force known as “the Desert Wolves,” were fighting in Sudan in an operation spearheaded by the UAE.
It said the former Colombian soldiers had been recruited and flown to cities in the UAE and then to Libya, where they were transported across the border to Darfur. They were promised salaries of US$2,600 to US$3,400 a month, the report said.
The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs later acknowledged the presence of Colombian mercenaries in Darfur and formally apologized to Sudan’s government.
This past April, a report by a United Nations panel of experts said the allegations of Colombian mercenary involvement were “credible.”