United Nations experts have found that Boeing 727s linked to a U.S. military contractor’s business network transported mercenaries, weapons, and drones for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, according to a draft U.N. report due to be published in September. The findings provide additional details about the role the aircraft played in supporting the RSF, the paramilitary force U.N. investigators have accused of committing genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The report said the aircraft had transported RSF fighters and mercenaries, as well as military equipment, including drones and weapons. It cited two eyewitnesses in Nyala, the RSF’s main military and logistics hub in Darfur, and communications from two member states as sources of the information.
A recent investigation published on July 15 traced three aging Boeing aircraft 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 RSF in Sudan, Libya, and Somalia. The investigation reported that one of the planes – a Boeing 737 – had RSF fighters onboard when it was destroyed in May 2025.
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The U.N. report reviewed by the outlet was compiled by the Panel of Experts on the Sudan, a group mandated by the Security Council to monitor an arms embargo imposed on Darfur in 2004. The draft report has been submitted to the Security Council for review ahead of publication.
The planes identified by the U.N. were among the ones linked to RSF hubs. The U.N. report said three 727s – one sold in Brazil to a Shaulis-linked company and two acquired from Michigan-based Kalitta Charters II – appeared in Chad from November 2024 and operated out of the military apron of N’Djamena’s airport. The U.N. panel said no movement by any of the three planes had been logged since they arrived in N’Djamena, adding that it suspected the Boeings were taking steps to avoid detection while in flight.
Kalitta’s attorney told journalists the company had carried out extensive due diligence before the planes were sold and no sanctions violations were flagged. Between January and July 2026, multiple Boeing 727s and some Ilyushin II-76 transport planes landed in Nyala at night.
Researchers tracked the movement of the Boeings from N’Djamena to RSF hubs in Libya and Sudan using cloud trends and satellite imagery, but also found no record of the flights on independent trackers that monitor the signals aircraft normally broadcast while in the air.
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The panel’s findings are part of a broader investigation into violations of the 22-year-old arms embargo on Darfur. Beyond the findings about the Boeing 727s, U.N. investigators also detailed the scale of the support provided to the RSF.
Sudan’s civil war started in 2023 when leaders of the army and the RSF fell out over plans to integrate their forces during a failed transition to civilian government. The death toll since is estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and the fighting has worsened famine and disease, creating what the U.N. calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
They are seeking ways to address the crisis.