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The US government has levied restrictions on a network of four individuals and four companies charged of enlisting former Colombian soldiers to support and educate a Sudanese paramilitary group the United States claims of committing genocide.

Operation Structure

Disclosing the sanctions on this week, the US Treasury Department stated the operation was primarily made up of individuals and businesses from Colombia.

Scores of ex-soldiers from Colombia have been recruited to go to Sudan to operate with the RSF paramilitary group, a faction accused of terrible atrocities such as massacres based on ethnicity and large-scale abductions.

Revelation of Role

The role of these mercenaries initially emerged in 2024, after an report which disclosed that more than 300 retired troops had been hired to fight – an discovery that prompted an rare mea culpa from officials in Bogotá.

Colombian ex-soldiers have long been considered as some of the most in-demand contractors globally due to their considerable warzone knowledge resulting from decades of civil war, familiarity with Nato equipment, and high-level combat training.

Activities in Sudan

In the conflict, the Colombians have been accused of teaching underage fighters, provided drone warfare training, and participated in direct battles. A mercenary remarked that training children was "awful and crazy" but added that "regrettably, war operates that way".

Named Entities

Among those sanctioned was Álvaro Andrés Quijano Becerra, a citizen of both Colombia and Italy and former army officer located in the Dubai. The government alleged he played a central role in enlisting and transporting mercenaries to Sudan. His wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, was also sanctioned.

Also on the sanctions list was Mateo Duque Botero, a individual with Colombian and Spanish citizenship who authorities say managed a business linked to processing money and salaries for the recruitment operation. "Recently, US-based firms connected to Duque conducted several money transfers, totalling millions of US dollars," the government release noted.

Colombian national Mónica Muñoz was the final person to be sanctioned, with the company she managed said to have conducted money transfers connected to Duque and his operations.

"Washington reiterates its demand for foreign parties to cease providing financial and military support to the combatants," the Treasury said in a statement.

Reaction

An expert, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, called the sanctions as a "major" step, saying that "calling out those who are doing the contracting is the correct approach".

She added that, Bogotá recently passed a statute endorsing the International Convention Against the Recruitment and Use of Mercenaries, designed to limit decades of Colombian involvement in overseas wars and transform domestic defense strategy.

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

"It’s an illicit economy and based out of Dubai, which is relatively sanction-proof," he said. The United Arab Emirates has been widely accused of providing arms to the militia, claims it rejects. "This trend will probably continue," McFate warned.