Tag: paramilitaries

Africa
Wagner

Russian mercs run opioid empire in CAR

Remnants of the Russian mercenary group Wagner apparently not integrated into Moscow’s new Africa Corps have gone rogue in the Central African Republic, financing their operations through narco-trafficking. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the mercenaries are running an opioid empire, supplying tramadol to the national army, local militias, its own forces, and workers in gold mines the group operates. A painkiller in normal doses, tramadol acts as a stimulant in higher doses that can reduce fear, exhaustion, and hunger in users. Proceeds from tramadol distribution, including exports, have helped the Wagner remnants in CAR maintain independence from Moscow. (Photo: Russian mercenaries in the Central African Republic. Credit: Corbeau News Centrafrique via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa
Sudan

UN investigation finds genocide in Sudan

The UN fact-finding mission for Sudan has produced a follow-up to its February investigationinto atrocities by the Rapid Defense Forces (RSF) in El Fasher, finding at least three of the “material crimes” of genocide “overwhelmingly present.” After a prolonged siege, the UAE-backed paramilitary army launched an October 2025 assault on El Fasher, which was the last major Darfur city where the Sudanese army and allied forces were in control. Since the February publication, the mission said it has received new information, especially on the abduction and mass rape of women and girls. It says survivors were raped by RSF forces in the presence of corpses, including of family members, and were targeted along ethnic lines. The mission also received new information on the high number of people—up to tens of thousands—who remain missing or unaccounted for. With the RSF planning a new assault on the North Kordofan capital, El Obeid, the mission said the same patterns are repeating, and called for the lessons of El Fasher not to be ignored. (Map: PCL)

Africa
RSF

UAE-backed network in Libya fuels Sudan war

A new Lighthouse Reports investigation has brought to light new evidence of the United Arab Emirates’ role in sustaining Sudan’s civil war by backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) through a covert logistics and training network based in eastern Libya. The report draws on social media analysis, geolocation data, satellite imagery, and witness interviews to trace alleged RSF-linked camps, convoy routes, and transfers of weapons and fuel between Libya and Sudan. The investigation identified four previously unknown RSF staging areas in Libya, including one near Benghazi. RSF defectors described training alongside Libyan National Army soldiers and UAE-contracted Colombian mercenaries before being sent back to Sudan. (Photo of RSF forces in Darfur via Sudan Tribune)

Africa
AES

Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso withdraw from ICC

Amnesty International warned that the recent move by Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso to submit formal notifications of withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) paints a bleak future for thousands of conflict survivors, threatening their right to truth, justice and reparations. The three countries recently formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a mutual defense and economic confederation that seeks to reject the political influence of Western powers. The AES countries are currently engaged in coordinated military actions to beat back surging jihadist offensives, which have resulted in massive civilian casualties across their shared borders. The Sahel war has contributed to an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region, and resulted in multiple massacres and extrajudicial killings committed by state security forces and paramilitaries with Kremlin ties, as well as by insurgent groups. (Photo: Mali Government Information Center via Morning Star)

Africa
Mali

Mali: rising violence against civilians

Human Rights Watch criticized insurgent armed groups, the Malian armed forces and allied militias, and Russian mercenaries, which have all committed “serious abuses of human rights against civilians” amid an internal conflict that has further fueled long-standing ethnic tensions in the country. A sudden intensification of violence ​began this April after the al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam & Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM) formed a pact with Tuareg fighters of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a faction with which they have had a rocky relationship, to carry out attacks across Mali. The Malian armed forces have responded with drone strikes that resulted in multiple civilian fatalities. The armed forces and militia groups are also believed to have carried out reprisals against Fulani communities, who are stigmatized as JNIM collaborators. Russian fighters from the paramilitary Africa Corps have also participated in atrocities. (Map: PCL)

Africa
ICJ

DRC files ICJ case against Rwanda

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) filed an application to bring proceedings against Rwanda over decades of war crimes and violence perpetrated in the DRC’s east. The case filed with the International Court of Justice cites “abuses attributable to Rwanda over a period extending from 1996 to the present day,” including massacres, forced displacement, and other atrocities. The case comes after years of worsening tensions, with the Congolese government repeatedly accusing Rwanda of supporting armed groups operating in the eastern DRC, particularly the M23 rebel group, which has seized large areas of territory in recent years. (Photo: ICJ)

Africa
Sudan

Sudan: atrocity alert as RSF rings El Obeid

Warnings are mounting that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) could carry out new mass atrocities as the paramilitary army prepares an assault on the government-held city of El Obeid in North Kordofan state. After the UN secretary-general and human rights chief sounded the alarm, the African Union and several governments also warned of the extreme danger facing civilians if the UAE-backed rebels capture the city. The warnings have drawn comparisons with El Fasher and the nearby Zam Zam displacement camp in Darfur, which saw general massacres after they fell to the RSF last year. Reports suggest the RSF has moved substantial reinforcements to its siege of El Obeid, while stepping up drone strikes on the city. A crossroads linking RSF-controlled Darfur with government-held Sudan, El Obeid was under RSF siege until the Sudanese Armed Forces broke the blockade last year, but it is now being encircled once again. (Map: PCL)

Africa
Central African Republic

Persistent armed attacks in Central African Republic

The UN Independent Expert on the human rights situation in the Central African Republic, Aristide Nononsi, expressed concern about the persistent violence in the country, and its impacts on humanitarian needs. Reporting on his visit to the CAR, Nononsi noted that despite the mostly peaceful electoral process that took place in December, the country continues to face instability due to attacks by armed groups against civilians, tensions involving nomadic pastoral communities, and spillover consequences of the conflict in Sudan. (Map via Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection)

South Asia
Manipur

India: Naga armed groups drawn into Manipur violence

Amnesty International called for the immediate and unconditional release of civilians being held by armed groups in India’s Manipur state as negotiations over the fate of remaining captives appear to have stalled amid continuing ethnic tensions. The call comes after armed groups from the Kuki and Naga communities reportedly abducted more than 48 civilians following an ambush by unknown armed men that killed three church leaders. The church leaders had recently participated in efforts to facilitate dialogue between Kuki and Naga groups. Kuki leaders blamed the slayings on the Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF), a Naga insurgent organization, sparking the inter-communal violence. (Photo: Asia Media Centre)

Southern Cone
Mothers of May

Brazil: demand justice 20 years after ‘Crimes of May’

UN human rights experts called on Brazil to ensure full justice, accountability and reparations for victims and families affected by the 2006 “Crimes of May.” They warned that continued impunity worsens the suffering of victims and perpetuates systemic racism and police violence. The 2006 violence began when the criminal organization Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) launched coordinated prison rebellions and attacks against public officials after authorities transferred hundreds of suspected gang members to maximum-security prisons. Police and death squads carried out a retaliatory campaign that resulted in more than 500 deaths and at least four “enforced disappearances.” (Photo: Conectas)

Africa
Sudan

UAE recruits Colombian fighters for Sudan’s RSF: report

A company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has hired and transported hundreds of Colombian private military contractors to Sudan to fight for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Human Rights Watch charges in a new report. HRW found that the recruits passed through a UAE military base in Ghiyathi and an apparent private military facility in Al Wathba, both in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. HRW called on the international community to press the UAE to end its support for the RSF by suspending military cooperation and arms sales. (Map: PCL)

Africa
Sudan

Sudan: RSF commander named in war crimes

Amnesty International demanded the removal of a commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), citing war crime allegations against him. Al-Fatih Abdallah Idris AKA “Abu Lulu” was arrested by the RSF in late October 2025 following global outrage from a viral video appearing to show him executing unarmed civilians during the taking of the Darfur city of El Fasher. Following a Reuters investigation, multiple sources confirmed that Abu Lulu has been released from detention and is back on the battlefield. (Map: PCL)