Could Pablo Picasso be more powerful than a heavily armed mercenary? That was the hope of Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris who, in a surprising message delivered in Spanish to the Colombian people on Saturday, August 16, contrasted the glory of Hispanic culture with the private soldiers who have come to fight in his country. The pens of Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez or Pablo Neruda, he argued, are mightier than the sword. Colombian President Gustavo Petro echoed the plea the next day, in a post on X: "Young veterans and former officers, do not sell yourselves. Fight for your homeland, do not die in foreign wars."

The messages came after Sudanese state television announced August 6 that a plane carrying at least 40 Colombian mercenaries had been shot down as it was landing in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. The area is controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who has been at war for two years with the regular army led by Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan and who controls much of western Sudan.

The presence of Colombian mercenaries on Sudanese soil is not new. In November 2024, the Colombian news website La Silla Vacía revealed more than 300 Colombians were fighting alongside the FSR, prompting a response from the country's president at the time. In a video circulating on social media, Sudanese militiamen allied with the Sudanese Armed Forces could be seen examining identification documents found in a convoy intercepted at the border between Libya and Sudan. The papers belonged to Colombian nationals.

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