By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Foreign weapons, military technology, fighters and logistical networks are helping sustain Sudan’s conflict and expanding the warring parties’ ability to strike distant civilian areas with drones, a U.N. fact-finding mission said on Thursday.
Sudan’s war, which erupted in April 2023 following a power struggle between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has displaced more than 14 million people and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
In a report, the U.N. mission said more than 1,000 people were killed in drone strikes in the first five months of 2026, accusing both sides of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in drone operations, with some conduct amounting to war crimes.
The RSF and Sudan’s military did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. In the past, both have denied abuses.
The mission said investigators found grounds to believe a network involving individuals and entities in the United Arab Emirates, Chad, Libya and Somalia supplied the RSF with weapons, equipment, logistics, training and foreign personnel.
It said up to 2,000 Colombian contractors had helped operate and maintain drone systems and other advanced weapons used by the RSF. Some were present during operations around the city of al-Fashir in Darfur, which was captured by the RSF in October 2025 and where the U.N. mission has previously said mass killings bore hallmarks pointing to genocide.
The UAE has routinely denied accusations that it has backed the RSF militarily. Its diplomatic mission in Geneva repeated that stance, saying it “remains committed to open and constructive dialogue with the Fact Finding Mission”.
Somalia’s government said it took the report’s allegations seriously. It said it did not permit its territory, airspace or ports to be used by parties to the conflict for military purposes, but added that there had been “gaps” in information-sharing between the federal government and regions.
Colombia told investigators it opposed mercenarism and was taking steps to address the participation of Colombian nationals in foreign conflicts.
The ambassador to Chad’s mission in Geneva, Makaila Ahmad, told Reuters all allegations against the country were false, reaffirming Chad’s neutrality in Sudan’s conflict, and saying it was making significant efforts to secure its borders and prevent arms trafficking.
Libya’s mission in Geneva, which represents the internationally recognised government in Tripoli, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
DRONE WARFARE
The U.N. fact-finding mission said its investigation into external support for Sudan’s military was at an early stage but had found evidence that foreign-supplied combat drones and loitering munitions — which can hover over an area before striking a target — had expanded the army’s long-range strike capabilities.
It said some of those weapons were used in attacks on civilian locations, including Yabus Market in Blue Nile State.
Expanded drone range, persistence and increasingly sophisticated capabilities enabled Sudan’s military and the RSF to strike far beyond immediate front lines, and evidence points to both sides carrying out drone attacks that killed civilians and hit hospitals, schools, markets and displacement sites, the report said.
Between May and July 2026, repeated RSF drone attacks damaged electricity and fuel facilities in the North Kordofan capital of El Obeid, which was under army control as RSF pressure intensified in June this year. Strikes disrupted water supplies, healthcare, transport and other basic services in a city already under severe strain and partial siege.
Among the cases highlighted in the report were army strikes that investigators said killed at least 70 people at Ad-Da’ein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur.
The mission reiterated calls for enforcement of an arms embargo on the Darfur region and urged the U.N. Security Council to extend it across all of Sudan.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Additional reporting by Emma Farge, George Obulutsa and Giulia Paravicini; Editing by Tom Hogue, Peter Graff, Aidan Lewis)
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