🇸🇩 🇺🇸 🇦🇪 The US army veteran and the mystery Boeings flying Sudan’s war routes

Companies owned by a longtime U.S. government and military contractor have been operating several airplanes linking regional supply routes to the stronghold of a paramilitary force accused of genocide in Sudan, a Reuters investigation has found.

To the outside world, Steven Shaulis, a 63-year-old U.S. Army Special Forces veteran, is the head of the Singapore-based CADG, formerly known as Central Asia Development Group, a global firm that has held U.S. and United Nations contracts for over 20 years. Shaulis’ companies have earned at least $419 million from American taxpayers through military and foreign-aid projects, government records show.

Their work has included building infrastructure for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, supplying them air-conditioning in Iraq and work on an airfield for the U.S. Department of Defense in Kenya.

Behind the scenes, Reuters found, Shaulis-controlled firms have operated at least three aging Boeing aircraft flying to key logistics hubs used by the Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group accused of atrocities in the Darfur region. The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United Nations have sanctioned the RSF's top commanders, along with more than two dozen people and companies accused of helping the paramilitary force procure weapons, equipment and mercenaries.

Reuters is reporting the involvement of Shaulis’ companies in Sudan’s civil war for the first time. The news organization found no evidence that Shaulis or any of his companies have been sanctioned or face allegations of wrongdoing from authorities.

The trail leading to Shaulis starts with a mysterious Boeing 737 destroyed by Sudan’s military in May 2025 at the airport in Nyala, an RSF stronghold in Darfur. A source with direct knowledge told Reuters that 51 RSF fighters were among the 54 people killed in the strikes.

A pilot and ground engineer on board were employed by Occidental Support Services, a company wholly owned by Shaulis and registered in the United Arab Emirates, according to corporate and employment records reviewed for this report. Reuters also identified two additional Boeing 727s tied to Shaulis firms that have moved from Brazil and the U.S. since October 2024 to Chad, where they made flights to known supply hubs used by the RSF.

Flight tracking data, satellite imagery and an open-source video show that the three planes Reuters linked to Shaulis landed at least 16 times at three of these hubs – Bosaso, Somalia; Kufrah, Libya, which proved critical to the al-Fashir operation; and Nyala, Darfur’s largest city and the RSF’s most important military-and-logistics hub.

The planes were often based in N’Djamena, Chad, where satellite imagery captured them inside a military section of the capital city’s airport, access to which is controlled by Chad’s armed forces. Airports in these locations are regularly used by the RSF as supply hubs, according to U.N. experts, diplomats, regional political experts and human rights groups.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/investigations/us-contractor-mystery-boeings-operating-sudan-paramilitary-supply-routes-2026-07-15/

🐣 🇺🇸 ⚪️ The white fertility rate overtook the overall in early 2025 and the gap has already grown significantly since then.

📎 Paul Castillo