🔗 Share this article

The United States has imposed sanctions on a network of four individuals and four companies accused of hiring former Colombian soldiers to support and educate a armed faction in Sudan that Washington accuses of genocidal acts.

Group Makeup

Announcing the measures on this week, the American treasury stated the scheme was mostly comprised of individuals and businesses from Colombia.

Scores of retired Colombian troops have reportedly travelled to Sudan to operate with the RSF paramilitary group, a group accused of horrific war crimes including massacres based on ethnicity and large-scale abductions.

Discovery of Participation

The role of these mercenaries initially emerged in 2024, prompted by an report which disclosed that over three hundred former soldiers had been contracted to participate in the war – an discovery that led to an rare mea culpa from Colombia’s foreign ministry.

Colombian ex-soldiers have widely regarded as among the world’s most sought-after mercenaries due to their vast combat experience gleaned from years of internal conflict, knowledge of advanced weaponry, and superior tactical education.

Reported Actions

In Sudan, the contractors have reportedly trained minors, instructed militiamen in drone operation, and participated in direct battles. An individual involved remarked that working with child soldiers was "terrible and insane" but noted that "unfortunately that’s how war is".

Targeted Persons

Among those penalized was Álvaro Andrés Quijano Becerra, a individual with dual citizenship and former army officer operating from the UAE. The Treasury accused him a key part in hiring and sending former Colombian soldiers to Sudan. His wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, was also sanctioned.

Also on the sanctions list was Duque Botero, a dual national who the Treasury stated ran a firm implicated in handling funds and payroll for the network. "Over the past two years, US-based firms associated with Duque conducted several money transfers, worth millions," the Treasury statement said.

Citizen of Colombia Mónica Muñoz Ucros was the other individual to be penalized, with the entity she oversaw said to have conducted wire transfers linked to Duque and his operations.

"The United States again calls on outside forces to halt the flow of funding and arms to the belligerents," the agency stated.

Expert Analysis

An expert, from a conflict think tank, called the actions as a "highly important" development, noting that "identifying the recruiters is the proper strategy".

It was also noted that, the Colombian government recently passed a statute approving the International Convention Against the Recruitment and Use of Mercenaries, aiming to curb years of participation by its nationals in overseas wars and reshape national security policy.

A mercenary specialist, a scholar on the subject, advised additional measures, saying that "penalties are required yet incomplete for addressing the growing mercenary trade".

"It operates in the black market and centered in the UAE, which is relatively sanction-proof," he said. The United Arab Emirates has been widely accused of supplying weapons to the paramilitary group, an accusation it has denied. "This trend will probably continue," the expert cautioned.