UN experts have found that the Boeing 727, which "Reuters" revealed that it was linked to a business network of a private US military firm, had been transporting mercenaries, weapons and drones for the Sudanese paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The findings provide further important details about the role the plane played in support of the RSF: the paramilitary force that UN investigators accuse of committing genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.
"The commission received reliable information from four sources that the plane was transporting RSF fighters and mercenaries, as well as military equipment, including drones and weapons," the UN report said.
It cited two eyewitnesses in Nyala, the group’s main military and logistics hub in Darfur, and reports from two member states as sources of the information, without providing further details.
A "Reuters" investigation published on July 15, tracked three aging Boeing jets operated by companies linked to Steven Shaulis, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier and longtime U.S. government contractor, from an airport in Chad to logistics hubs used by the SBP in Sudan, Libya and Somalia. "Reuters" reported that one of the planes, a Boeing 737, had fighter jets on board when it was destroyed in May 2025, but many facts about the planes' cargo remain a mystery.
The news agency found no evidence that Shaulis or his companies had been sanctioned or accused of wrongdoing by authorities.
Shaulis also did not respond to questions about the U.N. report. He has previously declined to answer questions about his companies or the Boeing planes. The SBP also did not respond to requests for comment.
The UN report was compiled by the Panel of Experts on Sudan, which is mandated by the Security Council to monitor the arms embargo imposed on Darfur in 2004. The draft report has been submitted to the Security Council for review before publication.
The civil war in Sudan began in 2023, when leaders of the army and the SBP clashed over plans to integrate their fighters during a failed transition to civilian rule. The death toll since then is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, and the fighting has exacerbated hunger and disease, creating what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations report said three 727s — one sold in Brazil to a company linked to Shaulis and two acquired by Michigan-based Kalitta Charters II — had been in Chad since November 2024 and operated from the military zone at N’Djamena airport.
Kalitta’s lawyer told Reuters that the company had conducted extensive due diligence before the planes were sold and that no sanctions violations had been recorded. The UN commission believes that no movement of any of the three planes has been recorded since they arrived in N'Djamena, but suspects that the Boeings took "deliberate steps to avoid detection in flight," without providing further details.
The report said that between January and July 2026, multiple Boeing 727s and some Ilyushin II-76 transport planes landed in N'Djamena at night.
"Reuters" has tracked the planes’ movements from N’Djamena to SBP hubs in Libya and Sudan using satellite imagery, cellphone data and open-source video, but has also found no flight records from independent trackers that monitor the signals that planes typically emit while in the air.
"The SBP used the N’Djamena-Nyala air corridor to transport fighters, foreign mercenaries and military equipment, including drones and weapons, to Darfur," the U.N. report said.
Shaulis and his business partner Craig Munro are co-owners of Contractor Airways, the South African company that bought two of the 727s from Kalitta. Munro previously told Reuters that Contractor Airways had never had any connection to the Sudanese group. According to him, the media's findings that the plane landed in Nyala and Kufra in Libya are "to the best of our knowledge, incorrect".
The Civil Aviation Authority of Chad has stated that none of the Boeings had an operating permit from Chad, stressing that it does not operate military aviation nor provide services responsible for tracking flight movements.
Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Sabre Fadul has commented that matters regarding the planes are subject to defense secrecy, adding that Chad's only involvement in the war in Sudan has been through "diplomatic efforts to restore peace".
In addition to the findings about the Boeing 727, UN investigators also detailed the scale of support provided to the SBP by Colombian mercenaries hired by a company in the United Arab Emirates, with estimates ranging from 1,500 to 2,000 men.
The Colombian mercenaries - known as the "Desert Wolves" - set up a base in Nyala in March 2025, while fighting alongside SBP fighters, operating drones and participating in planning during the siege and eventual capture of the Darfur town of Al-Fashir in October 2025, the report said.
The mercenaries were hired by the UAE-based firm Global Security Services Group (GSSG).
Hundreds of unarmed men were shot dead, women raped and children abducted during the SBP assault on Al-Fashir last year. The violence, which the United Nations previously described as genocide, is now considered to amount to genocide.
Colombia’s Foreign Ministry also did not respond to requests for comment. The Colombian government has already apologized to Sudan for the presence of Colombian mercenaries in the country, however.
A spokesman for the UAE mission to the United Nations told Reuters that UAE authorities had investigated the GSSG and found that it "is not involved in any mercenary activity in Sudan and has no links to individuals reported to be mercenaries in Sudan."
The spokesman said the GSSG "acts in full compliance with UAE laws and regulations and international law."