Colombian youth recruited under false pretenses find themselves on the front lines of Sudan's brutal war

Colombian ex-military personnel have been recruited by private companies with promises of security jobs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but once in Abu Dhabi, their passports and phones are confiscated and then they are sent to conflict zones in Sudan.

According to The Telegraph, many of these Colombians ended up fighting with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group accused of war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

Military slavery

One of the almost 2.000 Colombian ex-military personnel who has been involved in the Sudan war told The Telegraph that many have been duped with promises of private security work for hotels and oil refineries in the UAE.

According to the now mercenary, the offer made to him by recruiters was attractive: a contract, around $2600 a month tax-free and paid flights.

"They tell you you're going to protect oil installations, hotels," said the Colombian ex-soldier, who, according to the British newspaper, was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement prior to his arrival in Abu Dhabi along with 60 others in March.

The Colombian was told he was being sent to Libya for security training. After his arrival in Bengasi, he and his fellow recruits were driven across the desert to Sudan and the SWR territory in Darfur.

These young men, some barely out of their teens, have been thrust as mercenary soldiers to the front lines of one of the world's most savage conflicts.

Colombians fight and die in Sudan

Sudanese Army officials told The Telegraph that the Colombians were not only training, but were on the front lines in Darfur and Kordofan.

According to the British newspaper, a Sudanese Army officer in Darfur, Ahmed Safeldin, said the effectiveness of the Colombians had been limited and several had been killed.

"They don't understand our tactics and they don't know the geography or topography of Darfur. That is why they have killed many of them. We have recovered official Colombian identity documents to prove it," the officer said.

Mohamed Ali, another officer, said, "Colombian mercenaries have been fighting with the RSF in Sudan since last year and they are still here now. We killed them and took their documents to prove any legal case in the future."

Families torn apart

The mother of a young Colombian soldier fighting in Sudan told The Telegraph that the boy was only 19 years old and that he had enlisted straight out of national service for what he said was a security job protecting hotels in the UAE.

Recruiters, the mother said, have warned families not to cause trouble.

"I was told that if I went to the press, my son would not come home."

The Telegraph assures that in recent weeks several Colombians were killed in drone attacks in Fasher, a key town in the conflict. The bodies of several mercenaries remain unclaimed in Sudanese morgues, while their families in Colombia do not know their whereabouts.