The teenage boy’s hands and legs were shackled to an anti-aircraft gun mounted on a pickup truck while Sudanese warplanes attacked. He observed another child chained to the steering wheel.
As their captors sought cover, the terrified children were ordered to remain and shoot down jets over the capital, Khartoum. They were threatened with death by their captors if they attempted to flee, unless the planes reached them first.
The boy, now 17, informed The Associated Press that Colombian mercenaries providing military aid to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces against the army in the war, which is now in its fourth year, ordered him strapped to the gun. Another child reported being forced to carry out artillery strikes and was beaten for disobedience.
These rare, firsthand accounts illustrate the dangers faced by tens of thousands of children allegedly conscripted into the conflict by all parties. Six former child soldiers who were abducted and compelled to fight with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) spoke to the AP under condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal. Two stated they received training from Colombians.
Their testimonies suggest a broader deployment of Colombian mercenaries, whom rights groups claim were recruited by a state-linked firm in the United Arab Emirates to fight alongside the RSF. Human rights organizations and Sudan’s military accuse the UAE of arming the RSF, and a U.N. panel reported tracking weapons shipments to the RSF originating from the Gulf federation that includes Dubai.
The UAE did not respond to multiple requests for comment. It has previously denied arming the RSF, stating that the shipments in question were humanitarian aid for refugees.
The boy who had been shackled to the gun wept as he touched scars sustained during the approximately 18 months he was forced to fight.
“I was extremely scared. I just wanted to escape and go home,” he stated.
### The Children Were Shackled Day and Night
He recounted being gathered by RSF fighters in a market in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city, where he sold cigarettes. He claimed the paramilitaries seized him by mistake while searching for deserters; he was 15 at the time.
Having never handled a gun before, he was thrust onto the front lines in Khartoum. Scars on his head and under his eye indicate areas hit by shrapnel, according to him.
He was subsequently taken to an RSF base in Omdurman called Central Reserve Camp, where he was held with dozens of other children. Their hands were bound constantly, even while eating.
“We weren’t allowed to bathe. Instead, they would pour water over us while we were still bound,” he said.
He mentioned that dozens of foreign mercenaries were at the base, described by the RSF fighters there as Colombians. Speaking through translators, these individuals taught the children how to operate anti-aircraft guns. He said they instructed RSF fighters to bind the children to the weapons to prevent escape.
“When the planes flew overhead, the Colombians would retreat to their bunkers, leaving us outside shackled to the vehicles,” the teenager reported. He was forced to fire but stated he was too afraid and never hit anything.
### A Second Boy Recounts Beatings and a Friend’s Death
The second boy described being held at an RSF camp named al-Konan at age 15, where Colombians trained him and other boys on heavy artillery and drones.
He said he was confined and only brought out for artillery strikes. The Colombians and the RSF used drones to select targets, and sometimes he observed civilians through the camera. When he refused to fire, they would beat him, occasionally using an electric baton. In one instance, he reported a Colombian beating him until he lost consciousness.
An 18-year-old friend attempted to flee and was shot dead by the RSF. He subsequently carried the body away.
Both children spoke at a facility operated by the military-backed government on Khartoum’s outskirts, where over 200 former child soldiers were undergoing rehabilitation. Many had been taken into the hands of the military when it recaptured the capital from the RSF in the past year.
A member of the military media office accompanied the AP during the visit. The official did not select who the AP interviewed; the AP maintained full editorial control over its content.
### Veterans of Colombia’s Long Wars Have Hired Themselves Out
The AP could not independently verify the boys’ accounts, though they align with other conflict reporting. Multiple nations are involved in Sudan’s conflict, and other foreigners, including Russians and Ukrainians, have participated in hostilities.
According to the U.N., approximately 10,000 Colombians have contracted for foreign wars, including those in Somalia, Ukraine, and Sudan. Colombia's decades of internal conflict, involving guerrillas, paramilitaries, and drug traffickers, have produced a large cohort of veterans valued for their U.S.-backed military training, who are driven abroad by minimal pensions and limited civilian job opportunities.
A recent law prohibits Colombians from fighting in foreign conflicts, but veteran groups claim recruitment continues.
Human Rights Watch and Conflict Insights Group, a private research firm, have documented the presence of Colombian mercenaries alongside the RSF in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, including during the October capture of El Fasher, where RSF fighters have been accused of mass killings.
In separate reports this year, Human Rights Watch and Conflict Insights Group stated that the Colombians were hired by an Emirati contractor and trained at Emirati military bases. The UAE denied these allegations at the time, informing the BBC it had no role in recruiting or training foreign fighters and that it would investigate and prosecute any suspected entity.
A Colombian mercenary who fought in Darfur for six months in 2025 told the AP that hundreds of Colombians were on the front lines with the RSF at that time and involved in training recruits. He stated he witnessed children as young as 13 fighting with the RSF, speaking anonymously due to concerns over legal repercussions.
Less is known about the Colombians’ involvement in Khartoum. Ali Qader, head of the rehabilitation center, reported that several children told him Colombians trained them at camps near the capital.
A former RSF fighter who defected to the government side and spoke anonymously for security reasons stated he saw Colombians training children in Khartoum in July 2024. A Sudanese military officer familiar with the situation said Colombians were training children in and around Khartoum when the RSF controlled the city. The officer was not authorized to brief reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Colombian government stated it possesses no official information confirming allegations that Colombians recruited or trained child soldiers in Sudan, while condemning such abuses.
### Child Recruitment Is a War Crime
Tens of thousands of children as young as 8 have been recruited during Sudan’s war, according to Abdelgadir Abdullah Abu, secretary-general of Sudan’s National Council for Child Welfare, a government body.
The U.N. asserts that all sides in the conflict have utilized child soldiers, including militias allied with the government. Many are believed to remain on active fronts. The RSF and the Sudanese government did not respond to detailed requests for comment.
The RSF has origins in the Janjaweed militias that swept through Darfur in the early 2000s. Sudan’s then-president Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide related to that campaign.
Rights groups contend that the RSF employs similar tactics today, suggesting that alleged UAE support could implicate the Gulf country.
“The evidence suggests the UAE could be substantially contributing to the RSF’s widespread crimes against humanity,” said Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, a senior adviser at Human Rights Watch.
### Children Returning From the Front Often Have Nowhere To Go
At the rehabilitation center, which included a soccer field and volleyball net, boys in white uniforms showed an AP reporter their injuries. One was missing a hand; another had back scars from what he described as torture; a third had bone protruding from his side.
The boy held at Central Reserve Camp said that at one point, while tied to the anti-aircraft gun, he refused to fire on a jet. RSF fighters shot at him as punishment, injuring his foot.
He reported that the wound became infected with worms. Eventually, the fighters abandoned him because of this, and he was later brought to the youth facility.
Wiping away tears, he expressed a longing to return home. His mother died from illness during the war, and his father told him he felt ashamed of what his son had done and did not wish to see him.
Zeinab Mahjoub, a psychologist at the facility, said she attempts to persuade relatives not to abandon the boys. Simultaneously, the boys are grappling with their own trauma.
Sheldon Yett, the head of the U.N. children’s agency in Sudan, stated that he was collaborating with the government and other parties to expedite the release of the boys, trying to convince authorities to treat “children as children.”
Since the AP visited the center in April, the children have been released.
The boy held at al-Konan Camp said that after nearly two years, he escaped one night when a guard left a door unlocked. He attempted to return to his family, but someone in the area knew he had fought with the RSF and reported him to authorities, who then referred him to the center.
He is attempting to move forward but struggles with guilt.
“We have made mistakes,” he said. “We want to get out of here to rebuild Sudan.”