GENEVA — A U.N.-backed fact-finding mission said foreign recruitment, weapons, and drone technology are sustaining Sudan’s civil war and enabling strikes that may amount to war crimes, Al Jazeera reported.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said transnational networks helped recruit and deploy foreign personnel for the Rapid Support Forces, including up to about 2,000 former Colombian military contractors operating drones and advanced weapons in Darfur and Kordofan. It also found reasonable grounds that the Sudanese Armed Forces used foreign-supplied drones that harmed civilians and infrastructure.
Documented attacks included RSF strikes in Kalogi, South Kordofan, that killed 114 people, and army strikes in Ad-Da’ein, East Darfur, that killed at least 70 and destroyed a major hospital. The UAE rejected allegations of support for the RSF; Chad said it remained neutral. The war since April 2023 has displaced more than 12 million people, the U.N. says.
Sources: Al Jazeera; Reuters coverage of the UN fact-finding mission report.
