Sudan military destroyed UAE plane carrying Colombian mercenaries: State TV

President Gustavo Petro says his authorities is trying to find retired however galore Colombians died successful the attack.

Sudan’s aerial unit has destroyed a UAE craft carrying Colombian mercenaries arsenic it was landing astatine an airdrome successful Darfur controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), army-aligned authorities TV reported.

The onslaught precocious connected Wednesday killed astatine slightest 40 people, the authorities broadcaster reported.

The airdrome has precocious travel nether repeated aerial strikes by the Sudanese army, which has been astatine warfare with the RSF since April 2023.

A subject source, speaking to the AFP quality bureau connected information of anonymity, said the Emirati level “was bombed and wholly destroyed” astatine Darfur’s Nyala airport.

There was nary contiguous remark from the RSF.

AFP quoted an Emirati authoritative denouncing what helium considered mendacious allegations that the Sudanese service had destroyed the plane.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said his authorities was trying to find retired however galore Colombians died successful the attack.

“We volition spot if we tin bring their bodies back,” helium wrote connected X.

State TV said the craft had taken disconnected from an airbase successful the Gulf, carrying dozens of overseas fighters and subject instrumentality intended for the RSF, which controls astir each of Darfur.

The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has agelong accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying precocious 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 person shown aggregate Chinese-made long-range drones astatine the airdrome of the South Darfur authorities capital.

On Monday, Sudan’s army-aligned authorities accused the UAE of recruiting and backing Colombian mercenaries to combat for the RSF, claiming it has documents proving that.

Reports of Colombian fighters successful Darfur day backmost to precocious 2024 and person been confirmed by United Nations experts.

Colombia seeks to prohibition mercenaries

This week, the Joint Forces – a pro-army conjugation successful Darfur – reported much than 80 Colombian mercenaries warring connected the RSF’s broadside successful el-Fasher, the past Darfur authorities superior inactive nether service control.

The service besides released video footage it said was of “foreign mercenaries believed to beryllium from Colombia”, which could not beryllium independently verified.

In December, Sudan said Colombia’s Foreign Ministry had expressed regret “for the information of immoderate of its citizens successful the war”.

Colombian mercenaries, galore erstwhile soldiers and guerrillas, person appeared successful different planetary conflicts and were antecedently hired by the UAE for operations successful Yemen and the Gulf.

In his station connected Wednesday, Petro said helium was moving to prohibition mercenary activity, calling it “a commercialized successful men turned into commodities to kill”.

As warring continues, thousands of families trapped successful the besieged metropolis of el-Fasher are astatine “risk of starvation”, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

An outbreak of cholera successful the North Darfur state, of which el-Fasher is the capital, has further added to the misery.

Sudan’s war, present successful its 3rd year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million, and plunged the federation into the world’s worst hunger and displacement crisis.