Emirates secretly sends Colombian fighters to Yemen

The United Arab Emirates has secretly paid hundreds of Columbia mercenaries to fight in the civil war in Yemen on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition, adding a volatile element to the already complex proxy war, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The Emirates reportedly dispatched 450 Latin American mercenary troops to Yemen – including also Panamanian, Chilean and Salvadorian – to fight against a Zaidi Shia-led Houthi rebels. The arrival of foreign troops adds to the mosaic of multifaceted regional, local and international power struggles with multiple actors including government forces, armed tribes, terrorist groups and Yemeni militias. The proxy war has also drawn in the United States and Iran.

Yemen’s President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced to flee the country by the Houthis and their new-found allies in the Yemeni Armed Forces with many key backers of the country’s former leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh. This prompted an ongoing, military campaign earlier this year led by Saudi Arabia aiming to restore Yemen’s internationally-recognised government to power.

The Colombian troops are part of the a brigade of 1,800 Latin American soldiers  – the first deployment of foreign fighters – who the Emirates have been training in the desert over the past five years, the New York Times reported. The mercenary program was once reportedly ran by the founder of a private company, Blackwater Worldwide, Erik Prince. But the people involved in the program said that his role ended several years ago and it has since been run by the Emirati military.

The exact mission of Colombian fighters in Yemen is still unclear, however, they do not seem to have gone into combat. The Colombians will be joining hundreds of Sudanese soldiers Saudi Arabia has hired to fight there and possibly some Eritrean troops, the Times reported.

Emirati forces have decided to recruit Colombian soldiers over other Latin American nationals because they consider the Colombians more battle tested in guerrilla warfare, the report stated. Hundreds of Colombian troops have been training in the Emirates since the project started in 2010. Most of the recruiting of the former troops from Columbia is done by a Columbian company, Global Enterprises, run by a former military commander Oscar Garcia Batte.

It is challenging for the Columbian government to keep soldiers at home, as many are allured by promises of making more money fight for the Emirates – money that the troops send mostly to their families at home. Fighting for the Emirates, Colombian mercenaries receive around 2,000 to 3,000 dollars per month, compared to 400 dollars a month they would make back home. “These great offers, with good salaries and insurance, got the attention of our best soldiers,” Jaime Ruiz, the president of Colombia’s Association of Retired Armed Forces, told the New York Times.

A number of wealthy Middle Eastern countries seem to be outsourcing part of their military and security needs – and have been for years – but these troops have been mostly used until now for internal security and guarding purposes, and are only now being sent into combat. Sending mercenaries to fight abroad is an “attractive option” for wealthy nations such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Emirates, since their citizens, in general, have little interest in military service.