14:47 BST
Sebastian Vandermeersch and Peter Mwai
BBC Verify
We’re looking into reports on Sudan’s state TV that the country’s armed forces have destroyed a United Arab Emirates aircraft carrying mercenaries from Colombia as it landed at Nyala airport in the country’s western South Darfur region.
We are searching for visual evidence of the incident and have so far not discovered any footage or images.
This involves searching for and analysing images and video posted online and looking at the latest satellite imagery of the location.BBC news teams in Africa are also attempting to get information from various authorities.
Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, has been a key stronghold of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who have been fighting the Sudanese army in a civil war for more than two years. The RSF has been accused of using the airport to transport mercenaries into the country – although it denies using hired foreign fighters.
We have been investigating the apparent involvement of mercenaries in the conflict in Sudan since last November when identity documents belonging to a Colombian national were posted online by fighters operating alongside the Sudanese army in Darfur.
We have verified a video, said to be filmed by a mercenary thought to be from Colombia, showing him driving through the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur towards el-Fasher which has been under siege from the RSF for more than a year.
We geolocated the video by matching distinctive buildings and roads visible in the footage to satellite imagery and confirmed it had been posted online in recent days. The same man, identifiable by his uniform and facial features, appears in other social media posts posing with weapons, other fighters, and possible child soldiers.