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Investigation links top UAE official to firm recruiting foreign mercenaries for Sudan's RSF

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 06 November 2025 10:58 AM

A new investigation shows that a senior Emirati official is linked to a firm supplying Colombian mercenaries to the so-called Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, revealing further evidence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s covert military role in the African country's bloody conflict.

Published on Wednesday, a new investigation by The Sentry, a research organization that tracks corruption, detailed how Ahmed Mohamed Al Humairi, the Secretary General of the UAE Presidential Court, founded and previously owned a security company that is now supplying Colombian militants to the RSF in Sudan.

The report - titled "Sudan Mercenaries Linked to Business Partner of Top UAE Bureaucrat" - further said that the company in question—Global Security Services Group (GSSG)—is operated by Mohamed Hamdan Al Zaabi, an Emirati businessman and close associate of Al Humairi.

Although Al Humairi publicly divested his shares, he remains closely connected to the company's current CEO, suggesting sustained influence.

"This connection to a senior Emirati government official—who holds a position equivalent to the White House chief of staff—is further evidence of the high-level linkages between the UAE and the RSF, which has been accused of committing genocide in Sudan," the investigative report added.

The report further revealed how Colombia's ex-soldiers—recruited by former Colombian army officer Álvaro Quijano—have been active in Darfur, alongside the RSF, training its forces (including child soldiers), and even receiving drone training in Abu Dhabi and rotating through a UAE-controlled base in Somalia.

"GSSG's role in providing Colombian fighters to serve in Darfur is part of a wider trend in the UAE, where foreign soldiers play significant roles. First, like the French Foreign Legion, the UAE recruits foreigners into its own armed forces... In addition, the UAE has been known to deploy fully formed mercenary units to fight overseas on its behalf," the report noted.

The Sentry also outlined a number of reasons behind the UAE's support for the RSF, including economic interests tied to Sudan's gold trade that flows into Dubai, as well as the RSF's usefulness as a low-cost source of mercenaries deployable in other regional conflicts.

The RSF's recent takeover of El Fasher, during which thousands of civilians were killed in a matter of days, has sharply increased global attention to the UAE's role in the violence.

Guided by its top leadership, the UAE has emerged as the key foreign supporter of the RSF, supplying the militia with the funding and military resources needed to sustain what has been described as a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The support is apparently not a passive endeavor but an active and deliberate strategy to achieve the UAE's geopolitical and economic objectives in the Horn of Africa, with Sudan's vast gold reserves and strategic Red Sea coastline being key prizes.

The UAE's involvement is so integral that Sudan filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing the nation of being the driving force behind the genocide and violating the Genocide Convention through its support for the RSF.