A video of some rocky outcrops in the Libyan desert geolocated by Bellingcat may hold clues about the journey of a missing Colombian who is among several reportedly recruited and sent to Sudan’s civil war, where his fate remains unknown.
According to reports by Colombian media and the Wall Street Journal, more than a hundred Colombian ex-soldiers were recruited to fight with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has asked the Foreign Ministry to look for options to return those involved in the scheme to Colombia.
Colombian outlet La Silla Vacia spoke to several ex-soldiers who were reportedly recruited by a Colombian security company with links to the UAE, a number of whom said they had been misled about their ultimate destination and transported to Sudan via Libya.
In videos circulating on November 21, the passport and other identity documents of Christian Lombana Moncayo were exhibited by Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the aftermath of an alleged ambush against an RSF convoy somewhere in the desert along the border between Libya, Chad and Sudan. So far, we have not been able to geolocate this footage.
It is unclear if Lombana Moncayo was killed, wounded or detained in the alleged ambush. It is also not clear how the SAF got hold of his documentation.
We reviewed his social media posts and found more details about his journey, including his final TikTok post, which we geolocated to Libya.
Sudan is in the midst of an ongoing civil war, which broke out after a peaceful uprising by civilians against dictator Omar al-Bashir. Following his ousting, two rival factions – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo known as General Hemedti and reportedly backed by the UAE among others– have been fiercely fighting over control of large swathes of the country.
Libya is one of the countries identified as a source of mercenaries moving into Sudan.
From Colombia to the United Arab Emirates
On November 21, videos circulated on social media allegedly showing SAF in control of pallets of ammunition after an ambush on an RSF convoy at an unknown desert location.
Soldiers at the scene were filmed sifting through personal documents which included family letters, a passport and ID cards of Colombian nationals.
But how did Lombana Moncayo’s documents end up there?
Bellingcat analysed and cross-referenced the ambush footage with social media posts made by Lombana Moncayo on TikTok.
We were able to match the Christian Lombana Moncayo seen in the ID documents with the social media handles by comparing key biographical details including his name, date of birth and place of origin along with his travel itinerary with details on the TikTok account.
Cross-referencing the series of stamps on Lombana Moncayo’s passport, his TikTok videos with details of his travels and FlightRadar data; it appears that he arrived in Abu Dhabi from Bogotá after a stop in Paris in early October, 2024.
Also, based on these stamps, it seems he stayed in Abu Dhabi only a short time before departing from the UAE on October 11, 2024.
During his time in the UAE, Lombana Moncayo appears to have stayed at the hotel La Quinta by Wyndham Abu Dhabi Al Wahda in the Emirates’ capital.
The Journey Continues
On November 17, just four days before the alleged SAF ambush videos started to circulate online, Lombana Moncayo posted his last TikTok video on the analysed account.
The footage was filmed from inside a moving vehicle passing by a series of hills, one very close to the road and the others in the background. The low sun position appears to indicate the video was filmed either in the early morning or late afternoon.
Based on the testimonies given to La Silla Vacia, we worked on the assumption that Lombana Moncayo left the UAE to Benghazi, Libya and then was transported by road to Sudan.
There is only one road connecting Benghazi with the southwestern town of Al-Jawf, which is closer to the border with Sudan, as indicated in red below.
Using this road and Google Earth, we started our hunt for areas featuring terrain features similar to the ones seen in Lombana Moncayo’s video until we found an area of interest just north of Al-Jawf.
We shortlisted those areas where the hills were close to the road as seen in the video.
Further review of satellite imagery allowed us to find a match in the sand pattern on the slope of one of the hills along this sector of the road, approximately here: 25.099960, 22.955852 about 110km north of Al-Jawf and approximately 300-400km from the border with Sudan.
Further inspection of the hills in the background using PeakVisor helped us to verify the location. The solar path simulation using the same tool appears to suggest the video was filmed at around 18:00 in October-November, which is consistent with Lombana Moncayo leaving the UAE on October 11 and posting the video on November 17.
Bellingcat determined this footage was filmed from a moving vehicle heading towards the town of Al-Jawf in southwestern Libya, approximately 300-400km from the border with Sudan.
If the video was indeed filmed by Lombana Moncayo, our findings tally with testimonies reported by La Silla Vacia of the transit of Colombians through Libya into Sudan.
The timing of the video, posted on November 17, would line up with the appearance of his passport and other documents on November 21, exhibited by the SAF in the aftermath of the alleged ambush in the desert along the border between Libya, Chad and Sudan.
We would like to thank Reade Levinson for her contributions to this research.
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