UN Experts: Boeing Aircraft Linked to US Military Contractor Ferried Fighters, Weapons and Drones to Sudan's RSF

A draft United Nations report seen by Reuters has found that Boeing aircraft linked to the business network of a US military contractor were used to transport fighters, foreign mercenaries, drones and weapons into Darfur on behalf of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) the paramilitary group UN investigators have separately accused of committing genocide in the region.

A corridor from Chad to Darfur
According to the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan, "the RSF utilized the N'Djamena–Nyala air corridor to transport fighters, foreign mercenaries, and military equipment, including drones and weapons, into Darfur." Nyala, the RSF's main military and logistics hub in Darfur, received multiple nighttime landings by Boeing 727s and Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft between January and July 2026, the panel documented. The finding is based on information the panel described as reliable, drawn from four sources two eyewitnesses in Nyala and communications from two UN member states.

Tracing the aircraft to Steven Shaulis
The UN findings build directly on a Reuters investigation published on 15 July 2026, which traced three ageing Boeing aircraft operated by companies linked to Steven Shaulis, a former US Army Special Forces soldier and longtime US government contractor from an airport in Chad to logistics hubs used by the RSF in Sudan, Libya and Somalia.

Shaulis, 63, is executive director and co-founder of the Singapore-based Contractor Augmentation and Direct Government Services group (CADG), which Reuters reported has earned at least $419 million from American taxpayers over more than two decades on projects including infrastructure work for US forces in Afghanistan, air-conditioning installation in Iraq, and airfield work for the US Department of Defense in Kenya.

Two of the three Boeing 727s were acquired from Kalitta Charters II, a Michigan-based cargo operator, and one was purchased in Brazil, according to the UN report. The two Kalitta-sourced aircraft were bought by Contractor Airways, a South African company jointly owned by Shaulis and business partner Craig Munro. All three aircraft appeared in Chad from November 2024, operating out of the military apron at N'Djamena's airport and, notably, none of the three logged any further movement on conventional flight-tracking databases after arriving there, which the UN panel said suggested the aircraft were taking "deliberate steps to avoid detection while in flight."

A plane destroyed with RSF fighters aboard
Reuters' earlier investigation had already established that one of the network's aircraft a Boeing 737 was destroyed by Sudanese armed forces in May 2025 at Nyala airport while reportedly carrying RSF personnel. Investigators used satellite imagery, cell-phone location data and open-source video to track the movement of the Boeings from N'Djamena to RSF-linked hubs in Kufrah, Libya, and Bosaso, Somalia, as well as Nyala even though the flights left no trace on independent aircraft trackers.

Denials from those named
Craig Munro, co-owner of Contractor Airways, told Reuters the company had never had any connection to the RSF and disputed the finding that the aircraft had landed in Nyala or Kufrah, calling it, "to the best of our knowledge, false." Kalitta's attorney said the company had carried out extensive due diligence before selling the aircraft and that no sanctions violations had been flagged at the time of sale. Chad's Civil Aviation Authority said none of the Boeings had authorization to operate from Chadian territory, while noting that it does not manage military aviation or track military flight movements.

Reuters reported that it found no evidence Shaulis or his companies have been accused of wrongdoing or sanctioned by any authority, and that Shaulis did not respond to questions about the UN report, having previously declined to answer questions about his companies or the aircraft.

The wider stakes in Sudan's war
The findings add a significant new thread to the documented external logistics networks sustaining Sudan's war, now in its third year since fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the RSF in April 2023. Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have died in the conflict, and the United Nations describes the resulting famine and displacement crisis as the worst humanitarian catastrophe currently unfolding anywhere in the world. UN investigators have already accused the RSF of committing genocide against non-Arab communities in Darfur, making any confirmed external supply chain feeding fighters, mercenaries and weapons into the region a matter of direct accountability interest not only for the paramilitary group itself, but for the jurisdictions, companies and individuals whose aircraft and infrastructure make that resupply possible.

The unresolved question the UN panel's report leaves open, and which Reuters' reporting could not close, is who financed the flights and what, precisely, filled their cargo holds on each of the documented nighttime landings at Nyala a gap that is likely to shape how sanctions bodies, aviation regulators and Sudan's own accountability processes respond in the months ahead.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.
International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP
[email protected]
+233-555-275-880

References
Reuters / The Business Standard, "Boeings identified in Reuters report carried weapons for Sudanese paramilitary: UN experts," 29 July 2026. https://www.tbsnews.net/worldbiz/africa/boeings-identified-reuters-report-carried-weapons-sudanese-paramilitary-un-experts

Asharq Al-Awsat, "Boeings Identified in Carrying Weapons for Sudan's RSF, UN Experts Find," 29 July 2026. https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5301368-boeings-identified-carrying-weapons-sudan%E2%80%99s-rsf-un-experts-find

Reuters / Bluewater Healthy Living, "Exclusive-Boeings identified in Reuters report carried weapons for Sudanese paramilitary, UN experts find," 29 July 2026. https://bluewaterhealthyliving.com/news/world-news/exclusive-boeings-identified-in-reuters-report-carried-weapons-for-sudanese-paramilitary-un-experts-find/

Benzinga, "Boeing Aircraft Operated by US Government Contractor Linked to Weapons, Drone Transport for Sudan's RSF," 29 July 2026. https://www.benzinga.com/news/politics/26/07/60750690/boeing-aircraft-operated-by-us-government-contractor-linked-to-weapons-drone-transport-for-sudans-rsf-report
The Defense Post, "Aircraft Linked to US Contractor Used to Supply Weapons to Sudan's RSF: Report," 29 July 2026. https://thedefensepost.com/2026/07/29/us-contractor-weapons-sudan/