The United Nations said Thursday that international networks are helping sustain Sudan’s devastating war, a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced roughly 13 million and driven large areas of the country into famine since 2023.
A U.N. investigation identified a network of companies in the United Arab Emirates, Colombia, Chad and elsewhere that provided the RSF with weapons, military contractors, logistics and training.
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“The mission finds reasonable grounds to believe that a transnational network supplied the Rapid Support Forces with weapons, logistics, training and foreign personnel, including Colombian contractors involved in advanced weapons and drone systems,” said a summary of the findings by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan.
The mission was established independently by the U.N. Human Rights Council to examine alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Sudan.
Investigators said that “individuals and entities operating from, registered in or linked to the United Arab Emirates played a significant role in networks involved in the recruitment, financing, transportation and deployment of foreign military contractors and the provision of military-related support benefiting the Rapid Support Forces.”
The UAE has repeatedly denied providing military backing to the RSF.
The report also found that drones supplied from abroad had “expanded” the Sudanese army’s drone capabilities, while stressing that its conclusions regarding outside support for the army “remain preliminary.”
The investigators urged the U.N. Security Council to prolong its arms embargo on Sudan.
“The weapons, financing, personnel and technology that sustain this war must be constrained,” the mission said.
The investigators documented drone strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure by both sides, saying some of the attacks could constitute war crimes.
They also connected foreign-trained fighters to two massacres in 2025, at Zamzam camp and in El Fasher.
More than 100,000 people fled El Fasher. Survivors said RSF fighters shot civilians inside homes and on city streets, leaving bodies scattered across the city. Satellite imagery later appeared to show RSF members disposing of bodies in mass graves or by burning them.
Chad, Colombia and the United Arab Emirates cooperated with the investigation. Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and Somalia provided “no substantive response,” according to the report. Panama, whose financial sector has faced accusations of industrial-scale money laundering, asked for additional time to respond. The U.N. said neither Sudan’s military nor the RSF had cooperated with the inquiry.
An Associated Press investigation published in July found that Colombian mercenaries had trained children to fight for the RSF. Human rights groups say the recruits were brought in by a state-linked UAE company, which denies supplying arms or military assistance to any party in Sudan’s war.
The United States has called on the U.N. to impose fresh sanctions aimed at forcing the rival sides back to negotiations.
A draft U.S. resolution reviewed by The Associated Press in August condemns “the continuous influx of external military assistance, weapons and ammunition to the warring parties, which is prolonging the conflict and undermining mediation efforts,” including the deployment of drones and unmanned aerial systems from third countries.
The proposed resolution calls on all nations to “cease any direct or indirect support to the warring parties, be it logistical, financial or military, which enables conflict to continue.”
