Sudanese Darfur group claims mercenaries fighting alongside militias
Port Sudan, Sudan (PANA) - The Sudanese Joint Force of the Armed Struggle Movements (The Joint Force) has claimed that foreign Latin American mercenaries have been caught in the recent attacks carried against the government-controlled town of Al Fashir.
This shows further foreign involvement in the war in the Darfur region of Western Sudan, since the outbreak of the war in April 2023.
A press release by the joint force, a group of former Darfur rebel groups that joined the Sudanese Federal government after the 2022 Juba peace agreement, said that a recent battle revealed a striking and unprecedented involvement of mercenaries of various nationalities fighting alongside the paramilitary Rapid Suport Forces (RSF).
This is one in a series of attacks carried out by RSF, which seeks to overrun the town of Al Fashir, the only major town currently in the hands of the government forces and which hosts hundreds of thousands of civilians and dozens of camps for internally displaced persons.
On 2 August this year the RSF led a major offensive against the town, but was repulsed, according to the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Joint Forces.
“Confirmed reports indicate the participation of mercenaries from South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, and Kenya, in addition to more than 80 mercenaries from the Republic of Colombia. Several Colombian mercenaries involved in drone operations and artillery coordination were killed,” the statement published by the Joint Force in its Face book account on Sunday said.
The release said the RSF “long known for its brutal practices” has resorted to recruiting foreign mercenaries as a result of its failure to confront the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the joint forces of the armed struggle movements, and the popular resistance on the ground.
Even more alarming, it said, is the RSF’s collaboration with Abdulaziz al-Hilu’s militias in a deal, under which they were tasked with targeting anyone attempting to leave the city of Al Fashir, including women, children, and the elderly.
“We urge the governments of the countries whose nationals are involved as mercenaries to uphold their moral and legal responsibilities by engaging immediately with the Sudanese authorities to halt this grave situation —one that risks implicating them in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against unarmed Sudanese civilians.”
It addressed a message to the Sudanese people pointing out that it has become clear that “a conspiracy is being plotted against our homeland, one led by forces seeking to seize our resources, displace our people, and replace them with armies of outsiders”.
“What is happening in Sudan - and in the city of Al Fashir in particular - is not merely an assault by the Janjaweed militia, but a calculated attempt to bring down Sudan as a state, through alliances that turn war into a commodity and make the people its victims,” ’Colonel Ahmed Hussein Mustafa, Official Spokesperson of the Joint Forces of the Armed Struggle Movements, was quoted as stressing in the press release.
-0- PANA MO/MA 4Aug2025
