Phone tracking shows how Colombian mercenaries backed Sudan's RSF - report

The report says its data details a pipeline that showed the mercenaries present at various regional staging grounds, most significantly a UAE military training facility in Ghayathi in Abu Dhabi.It followed one phone from Colombia to Abu Dhabi's Zayad International Airport and then to the facility, where it also found four other devices configured to Spanish, which is spoken in Colombia.Two of those phones subsequently travelled to Sudan's South Darfur state and one to the de-facto RSF capital of Nyala, where it logged into wi-fi networks named "ANTIAEREO" (meaning "anti-aircraft" in Spanish) and "AirDefense".Nyala is a prominent hub for Colombian mercenaries and RSF drone operations, the report says. The CIG has documented significant drone activity there and identified more than 40 Spanish-language devices.In another case study the CIG tracked a phone from Colombia to Nyala and then to el-Fasher, in North Darfur state, during the time last October when the RSF took over the city after an 18-month siege.While in el-Fasher, the device connected to a wi-fi network named "ATACADOR" ("attacker" in Spanish), says the report. It adds that the CIG identified other devices associated with Colombian mercenaries also present during the RSF takeover.ReutersEl-Fasher was repeatedly shelled during the RSF siege - this picture from October last year shows a wrecked classroom where people had been sheltering The fall of the city was accompanied by mass atrocities assessed as war crimes and crimes against humanity by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and described by UN investigators as bearing the "hallmarks of genocide"."CIG assesses that the UAE-Colombian mercenary network bears shared responsibility for these outcomes," says the report."The scale of atrocities and siege in el-Fasher wouldn't have happened without the drone operations the mercenaries provided," Lynch adds, noting evidence that they also helped support the RSF siege.According to the report, the mercenaries operated as part of the Desert Wolves brigade, serving as drone pilots, artillerymen and instructors.One of them connected to wi-fi networks named "DRONES" and "LOBOS DEL DISIERTO [sic]" (meaning "Desert Wolves" in Spanish), while using Spanish-language settings.The brigade is led by retired Colombian army Colonel Alvaro Quijano, according to the Colombian digital news site La Silla Vacía. He is based in the UAE and has been sanctioned by the US and UK governments for recruiting Colombians to fight in Sudan.The Desert Wolves were paid and employed by a UAE-based company with documented ties to senior Emirati government officials, according to La Silla Vacía and documents obtained by the CIG, the report says.The CIG also says it identified devices with Spanish-language settings at a port in Somalia with links to the UAE, and at a town in south-eastern Libya believed to be a logistical hub for the flow of weapons to the RSF, allegedly facilitated by the Emirates.The number of Colombian fighters in Sudan has previously been estimated in the low hundreds.