Sudan’s air force has destroyed a UAE aircraft carrying Colombian mercenaries as it was landing at an airport in Darfur controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), army-aligned state TV reported.
The attack late on Wednesday killed at least 40 people, the state broadcaster reported.
The airport has recently come under repeated air strikes by the Sudanese army, which has been at war with the RSF since April 2023.
A military source, speaking to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, said the Emirati plane “was bombed and completely destroyed” at Darfur’s Nyala airport.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
AFP quoted an Emirati official denouncing what he considered false allegations that the Sudanese army had destroyed the plane.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said his government was trying to find out how many Colombians died in the attack.
“We will see if we can bring their bodies back,” he wrote on X.
State TV said the aircraft had taken off from an airbase in the Gulf, carrying dozens of foreign fighters and military equipment intended for the RSF, which controls nearly all of Darfur.
The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has long accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying advanced weaponry, including drones, to the RSF via Nyala Airport.
Abu Dhabi has denied the accusations.
Satellite images released by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab have shown multiple Chinese-made long-range drones at the airport of the South Darfur state capital.
On Monday, Sudan’s army-aligned government accused the UAE of recruiting and funding Colombian mercenaries to fight for the RSF, claiming it has documents proving that.
Reports of Colombian fighters in Darfur date back to late 2024 and have been confirmed by United Nations experts.
Colombia seeks to ban mercenaries
This week, the Joint Forces – a pro-army coalition in Darfur – reported more than 80 Colombian mercenaries fighting on the RSF’s side in el-Fasher, the last Darfur state capital still under army control.
The army also released video footage it said was of “foreign mercenaries believed to be from Colombia”, which could not be independently verified.
In December, Sudan said Colombia’s Foreign Ministry had expressed regret “for the participation of some of its citizens in the war”.
Colombian mercenaries, many former soldiers and guerrillas, have appeared in other global conflicts and were previously hired by the UAE for operations in Yemen and the Gulf.
In his post on Wednesday, Petro said he was moving to ban mercenary activity, calling it “a trade in men turned into commodities to kill”.
As fighting continues, thousands of families trapped in the besieged city of el-Fasher are at “risk of starvation”, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
An outbreak of cholera in the North Darfur state, of which el-Fasher is the capital, has further added to the misery.
Sudan’s war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million, and plunged the nation into the world’s worst hunger and displacement crisis.
