SUDAN: MORE COLOMBIAN ID CARDS FOUND

On 21 May 2025, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) discovered Colombian identity cards in the Al-Salha neighbourhood of Omdurman city, Khartoum State, after recapturing it from the Emirati-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It comes after earlier claims that over 300 Colombian mercenaries have been involved in Sudan’s proxy war. They were reportedly recruited by retired Colombian Colonel Álvaro Quijano, a Dubai resident, in partnership with the United Arab Emirate’s Global Security Service Group. The mercenaries had allegedly been promised security jobs protecting oil infrastructure in the UAE.

Despite Bogotá officials apologising twice towards the end of 2025 and Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo promising Sudanese officials that his country would ‘guarantee the return’ of its citizens fighting in Sudan's proxy war, meaningful action has yet to be taken on this front. The devastating war, which started on 15 April 2023, may have claimed over 60,000 lives in its first 14 months in just the capital city of Khartoum alone, according to the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine. It’s created the world's worst humanitarian and displacement crisis of the 21st century, with over 30-million people in need of assistance and over 12-million people displaced both internally and externally, according to the UN.

Moreover, an estimated $1 trillion will reportedly be needed for reconstruction in Sudan, whose infrastructure has collapsed due to the war, according to Sudanese authorities. Analysts argue that the widespread devastation of this war would not have been as severe without foreign interference and instigation.