🔗 Share this article

The US government has enforced penalties on a group of four individuals and four companies accused of hiring South American contractors to fight for and train a militia force in Sudan that Washington accuses of acts of genocide.

Operation Structure

Announcing the measures on Tuesday, the American treasury stated the network was mostly comprised of individuals and businesses from Colombia.

Hundreds of former Colombian military personnel have reportedly travelled to Sudan to operate with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a group linked to horrific war crimes including massacres based on ethnicity and widespread kidnappings.

Revelation of Role

The involvement of Colombian fighters was first uncovered last year, prompted by an investigation which revealed that hundreds of former soldiers had been contracted to participate in the war – an discovery that resulted in an rare mea culpa from the Colombian government.

Colombian ex-soldiers have widely regarded as highly prized fighters in conflict zones due to their considerable warzone knowledge gleaned from a long-running domestic war, knowledge of Western military gear, and high-level combat training.

Activities in Sudan

In Sudan, the Colombians have been accused of teaching child soldiers, taught fighters to pilot drones, and engaged in frontline combat. A mercenary was quoted as saying that training children was "awful and crazy" but noted that "regrettably, war operates that way".

Targeted Persons

Among those sanctioned was Álvaro Andrés Quijano Becerra, a dual Colombian-Italian national and ex-soldier located in the Dubai. The US authorities accused him a pivotal function in recruiting and deploying former Colombian soldiers to Sudan. His wife, Claudia Oliveros, was penalized as well.

Also on the sanctions list was Duque Botero, a individual with Colombian and Spanish citizenship who the Treasury stated managed a business accused of managing finances and payments for the network. "Recently, US-based firms connected to Duque carried out multiple financial transactions, totalling millions of US dollars," the Treasury statement said.

Colombian national Mónica Muñoz was the final person to be sanctioned, with the entity she oversaw accused of wire transfers associated with Duque and his operations.

"Washington reiterates its demand for outside forces to stop giving funding and arms to the combatants," the agency announced.

Expert Analysis

An expert, with the International Crisis Group, labeled the actions as a "highly important" step, saying that "identifying the recruiters is the right way to go".

It was also noted that, Bogotá ratified a piece of legislation endorsing the International Convention Against the Recruitment and Use of Mercenaries, designed to limit years of participation by its nationals in overseas wars and transform domestic defense strategy.

Another expert, an expert on mercenaries, advised additional measures, saying that "penalties are required yet incomplete for combating widespread use of contractors".

"This is a shadow economy and operating from the Emirates, which is largely insulated from sanctions," he stated. The UAE has been repeatedly implicated of arming the RSF, claims it rejects. "This trend will probably continue," McFate warned.