Foreign fighters deepen Sudan crisis
- Phone-tracking evidence indicates Colombian mercenaries fought alongside Sudan's Rapid Support Forces at the El-Fasher battle. - A UN inquiry says Libya sent Colombian fighters, weapons and fuel, and nearly four million displaced Sudanese have returned home. - Returnees face destroyed services and dire living conditions, and foreign backing risks prolonging the conflict ( ).
Evidence gathered by investigators shows Colombian fighters joined Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces in the battle for El-Fasher, widening the war’s foreign footprint. (bbc.com) A United Nations panel on Libya said the Subul al-Salam Battalion, part of eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar’s camp, helped move Colombian recruits, weapons and fuel across the border to back the Rapid Support Forces. The panel said the battalion controlled facilities in Kufra, including an airport used to transfer arms and fighters. (newarab.com) The same UN findings said the Rapid Support Forces used a rear base about 75 kilometres southwest of Kufra and other Libyan transit points where vehicles were modified before entering Sudan. The report covered activity from October 2024 to February 2026. (newarab.com) Sudan’s war began on 15 April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces after a power struggle between former allies. Three years later, the United Nations says nearly 34 million people in Sudan need humanitarian support. (news.un.org) El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, has become one of the war’s most dangerous fronts because it is the Sudanese army’s last major foothold in Darfur. Earlier UN warnings said the city faced a growing risk of genocide as fighting and ethnically targeted attacks intensified. (bbc.com) Foreign backing has expanded as civilians try to return home. The International Organization for Migration said on 21 April 2026 that nearly four million displaced Sudanese had gone back to their areas of origin, mainly in Khartoum and Al Jazirah state. (news.un.org) Those returns are colliding with wrecked infrastructure. IOM said homes, water systems, health services and electricity networks in many return areas had been heavily damaged, and farmers in Al Jazirah were finding broken irrigation systems and equipment. (news.un.org) The United Nations says almost nine million people are still internally displaced inside Sudan, after nearly 12 million fled the hardest-hit areas at the peak of the conflict. More than 4.4 million others crossed into neighbouring countries including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan. (news.un.org, (news.un.org) Aid agencies say returns will not hold without money to restore basic services. IOM said its 2026 Sudan response plan seeks $170 million and was still short by $97.2 million as of 21 April. (aljazeera.com) The Rapid Support Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment cited in reporting on the UN panel’s findings, and the Libyan battalion named in the report was also not reachable. For Sudanese civilians leaving displacement camps for ruined neighbourhoods, the war is still arriving from across the border. (newarab.com)
