US military contractor’s planes linked to Sudan paramilitary supply routes, investigation finds

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.

As reported by Reuters, 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.

Much remains a mystery about the planes’ activities, including who pays for their operations and what they typically carry, beyond the RSF fighters in the one that was attacked.

Shaulis declined to answer detailed questions from Reuters about his companies or the Boeing planes. The RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces did not respond to queries.

The American businessman’s involvement adds to an expanding list of players drawn into the three-year-old civil war. Human rights groups, U.S. lawmakers and U.N. experts have accused the United Arab Emirates of backing the RSF with weapons and mercenaries, fueling conflict in one of Africa’s most remote and poorest regions. The Gulf power says its involvement in Sudan is humanitarian. The Sudanese Armed Forces, meanwhile, have received strong political backing and varying levels of military support from regional powers including Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

This report is based on a review of corporate records, aviation registries, sales and employment contracts, satellite imagery, flight tracking data, mobile-device location data and social media posts. Reuters also interviewed more than 40 people, including intelligence officials, diplomats, aviation executives as well as experts in weapons and regional politics.

Since the conflict erupted in 2023, the RSF has assembled a formidable arsenal and seized control of vast stretches of Sudan. To wage this war, the RSF has relied on sprawling supply lines running through neighboring countries to deliver fuel, weapons and foreign fighters to its territory.

The Shaulis-operated Boeing planes provide a glimpse into the final legs of that chain, connecting air hubs in Chad, Libya and Somalia to RSF-controlled territory in Darfur.

Those hubs were critical during a major airlift to supply RSF fighters in Darfur as they conducted an 18-month siege of the city of al-Fashir, according to U.N. experts, intelligence officials, diplomats and military analysts. The supply operation started in February last year and continued through the fall of al-Fashir in October.

Reuters tracked three Boeings flying from Chad either to airports in RSF-controlled territory or known RSF supply hubs

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.

The United Nations accused the RSF of genocide during its siege of al-Fashir, one of the war’s bloodiest episodes. Capturing the city cemented the RSF’s control over Darfur, a region roughly the size of France. The paramilitary group has roots in the government-backed “Janjaweed” militias accused of atrocities in Darfur including ethnic cleansing two decades ago.

Aiding the RSF could violate a range of U.S. and U.N. sanctions, which prohibit knowingly providing services including transporting cargo, moving personnel and providing logistical support, sanctions experts said.

The government of the UAE and the U.S. Department of Defense did not respond to Reuters’ questions for this story, nor did the authorities in charge of eastern Libya.

Chad’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul said in a statement that Chad’s only involvement in Sudan’s war is through “diplomatic efforts to restore peace in that sister nation” and that its military infrastructure is used solely for the domestic operation of its defence forces.

Brahim Dadi, director general of Chad’s Civil Aviation Authority, said neither of the two Boeing 727s nor the 737 had authorisation to operate from Chad. He added that the authority had not received formal applications to register the planes or issue certificates needed to land or fly within Chadian territory.

Plane attack marked a turning point in Sudan war

Sudan’s army and the paramilitary group RSF joined forces to overthrow autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The war started when leaders of the two camps fell out four years later over plans to integrate their military forces during a failed transition to civilian government. The death toll since is estimated in the hundreds of thousands. Millions of Sudanese have been displaced, and the fighting has worsened famine and disease, creating what the U.N. calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Like the RSF, Sudan’s army has been accused by U.N. investigators and human rights groups of war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians and summary executions.

Before his companies started operating planes out of Chad, Shaulis had established himself as a major player in military contracting through his logistics and aviation company, CADG. After leaving the U.S. Army Special Forces, Shaulis began working on agricultural and development projects in Central Asia. He founded CADG in 2002, the year after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

CADG is registered in Singapore, has a 75,000-square-foot warehouse in Dubai, air bases in South Africa and Sudan, and has completed projects worth $800 million across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, according to its website. Its U.S. government contracts in Africa included constructing buildings for USAID in Mozambique, water supply facilities for the U.S. Air Force in Kenya and buildings for the U.S. Army in Central African Republic, according to the Reuters review of government documents.

CADG companies have been paid more than $160 million for contracting work with U.N. agencies in the last two decades, according to a Reuters tally of U.N. figures. Both the U.N. and U.S. government contracting figures are likely undercounts of the total value of work performed by Shaulis companies because of gaps in the records and challenges in finding every contract.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General, confirmed CADG previously did some contracting work with the U.N. But he said the U.N. was not aware of the planes or the operations mentioned in this story, and that CADG had not done any work for the U.N. in Sudan.

The attack on the first plane Reuters linked to Shaulis, the Boeing 737, marked a turning point in Sudan’s conflict, triggering a major escalation. Sudan’s military said it destroyed the 737 on May 3, 2025, because it was supplying the RSF.

The day after the attack, the RSF launched a barrage of retaliatory drone strikes on the army’s wartime capital, Port Sudan. The army-led government then cut diplomatic ties with the UAE, which it blamed for backing the drone strikes.

Reuters could identify the plane by its distinctive burgundy and white livery, a paint job dating to its earlier use as a commercial airliner. Hours before the plane was attacked, it was captured in a satellite image in the military section of N’Djamena International Airport in Chad. There, the 737 sat inside one of the most secure areas in the country, where Chad’s drones, air force jets and even its presidential plane are regularly parked.

Hours later, the 737 landed at the RSF-controlled airport in the Darfur city of Nyala. A Western military analyst, citing informants, said it was the 737’s fourth trip to the small airport when it landed there at about 10 p.m. on May 2.

Sudan’s military hit the plane with airstrikes about four hours later.

Chad’s armed forces did not respond to a request for comment about the presence of the Boeings in the military section of N’Djamena airport.

In addition to the 54 people killed, the source with direct knowledge said 57 injured passengers, including an unknown number of RSF fighters, were brought to the Sudan-Turkish hospital in Nyala. The military analyst said at least six senior RSF officers were among the dead.

The people killed included a South Sudanese pilot, a Kenyan pilot and a Peruvian ground engineer. The South Sudanese pilot and the engineer were both working for Shaulis-owned, UAE-based Occidental Support Services at the time of their fatal flight, according to copies of their contracts reviewed by Reuters and records provided by a corporate intelligence firm.

The pilot’s contract shows he was paid about $200 a day to work as a first officer for Occidental, with potential bonuses of up to $1,000 for “challenging conditions and timely landings.” That’s high pay for South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries. The contract was dated April 13, 2025, about three weeks before he was killed. It had a non-compete clause preventing him from doing similar work without Occidental approval.

While Shaulis’s company Occidental employed the South Sudanese pilot and ground engineer of the 737, Reuters was unable to determine who owned the jet when it was destroyed in Nyala. In the aviation industry, companies providing crews to planes often don’t own the aircraft itself.

Old U.S. planes end up in Chad and Libya

A few weeks after the 737 was destroyed by Sudan’s military, another Shaulis company bought another Boeing. This one was a 727, built in 1980, bought from a U.S. government contractor called Kalitta Charters II LLC and located in the midwestern U.S. state of Michigan.

It was the first of three Boeing 727s that companies and people linked to Shaulis would buy from Kalitta and relocate to Africa. Reuters tracked the first plane purchased from Kalitta to RSF supply hubs but did not find evidence the other two had flown the same routes.

That first 727, registration N726CK, was bought on May 29, 2025, by South African company Contractor Airways Proprietary Limited, according to U.S. Federal Aviation Administration documents. Shaulis is listed as a director of the company in South Africa’s business registry, as is a longtime business partner of his in Africa, Craig Munro, who is also CEO of Contractor Airways.

Kalitta’s attorney told Reuters that before agreeing to sell the three 727s to Contractor Airways, Kalitta carried out extensive due diligence to ensure sanctions compliance. He said this included a “know your customer” form, viewed by Reuters, that identified Shaulis and Munro as the joint owners of Contractor and that no sanctions violations were flagged in relation to the individuals or the company.

The same day the contract was signed, May 29, the plane landed in N’Djamena, according to flight tracking data, satellite imagery, and a February 2026 letter from Chad’s civil aviation authority that was shared by Kalitta’s attorney.

Reached for comment, Munro said Occidental Support Services provided financing for Contractor Airways’ aircraft acquisitions. He said that plane and another Kalitta 727 that flew to Chad this year had remained parked since their arrival, aside from some “flights to and from N’Djamena carrying medical equipment for a client, in the ordinary course of our business.”

Shaulis referred questions about the aircraft to Munro, saying they had been sold onward, without providing further details. Multiple messages and calls to an email address and phone number listed in Occidental’s business licence went unanswered.

For much of last year, the first Kalitta Boeing 727 plane sat parked inside the tightly secured military section of N’Djamena airport, satellite imagery shows. Between June and October 2025, it made at least seven trips to Kufrah Airport in Libya, according to satellite imagery and location data for a mobile device that traveled on that plane and another old Boeing that Reuters linked to Shaulis companies.

The mobile data was provided and analysed by Conflict Insights Group, a public-interest research organisation that monitors conflict in Sudan.

The remote airstrip in southeastern Libya, about 300 km (185 miles) from Sudan’s border, proved critical during the RSF’s siege of al-Fashir, Reuters has reported. Kufrah, a vast desert region, is controlled by a Libyan military commander allied with the United Arab Emirates – the Gulf nation accused by U.S. lawmakers and U.N. experts of sponsoring the RSF.

Authorities at Kufrah Airport declined to comment.

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The same jet also flew at least once to Nyala, according to an undated video published on August 3, 2025, by Colombian news outlet La Silla Vacia as part of a story on Colombian mercenaries operating in Sudan. The video shows a Boeing 727 with the same white body and grey tail landing at Nyala airport. Reuters verified the video and confirmed it was shot in Nyala sometime after June 10, 2025.

Munro said claims that the planes had landed in Kufrah and Nyala were “to the best of our knowledge, false”.

“There is not, and has never been, any connection between Contractor Airways and the RSF,” he said.

A $1 million Boeing from Brazil

Another Boeing 727 that ended up in the military section of N’Djamena airport came from Brazil, and would also end up making runs to Kufrah.

The plane’s seller – Total Linhas Aereas, a small cargo and charter airline – told Reuters it sold the plane for about $1 million to a U.S. aviation broker named Michael Ferreira, who sold it to Occidental. Reached by Reuters, Ferreira said he was “not aware” of the plane and declined further comment.

The plane’s new operator was listed in Brazilian registration documents as “Occidental Suporting Services,” an apparent misspelling of the Shaulis company name. A company spelled the same way was cited as the plane’s operator in October 2024 by Brazilian aviation media reporting the sale of the antiquated Boeing 727, registration PR-TTW, and noting it was destined for Chad. Such sales get trade press attention because 727s are rare and beloved by aviation enthusiasts.

Total Linhas Aereas told Reuters it flew the plane to Natal, in northeastern Brazil, a common departure point for transatlantic cargo flights to Africa, where flight tracking data shows it arrived on October 30, 2024. Location data for the mobile device Reuters had tracked on the first Kalitta plane show that the same device flew from Natal to N’Djamena, arriving by November 1.

For much of last year, satellite imagery shows, the 727 from Brazil and the first plane sold by Kalitta sat side-by-side in the military section of N’Djamena airport.

The plane from Brazil underwent significant maintenance in Chad. Satellite imagery from December 2024 shows its right-side engine missing, then replaced by an engine painted a darker color, one distinctive feature making it easy to identify in satellite images.

Those images show the plane made at least three trips to Kufrah in Libya – on March 25, September 18, and on January 4, 2026.

The flights in 2025 coincided with a surge in cargo flights from the UAE and Somalia to Kufrah documented by a U.N. panel of experts in the run-up to the RSF’s capture of al-Fashir.

Between July 9 and July 12 this year, all three Boeing planes were moved out of the military section at N’Djamena airport and parked elsewhere, satellite imagery shows.