🔗 Share this article

The United States has enforced penalties on a group of several persons and entities charged of recruiting South American contractors to combat alongside and instruct a militia force in Sudan the United States claims of acts of genocide.

Network Composition

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

Numerous of ex-soldiers from Colombia have been recruited to go to Sudan to fight alongside the Sudanese RSF militia, a force linked to severe violations encompassing targeted ethnic killings and mass abductions.

Discovery of Participation

The participation of ex-soldiers was first uncovered the previous year, following an inquiry which found that over three hundred retired troops had been contracted to engage in combat – an discovery that prompted an unprecedented apology from the Colombian government.

Colombian ex-soldiers have long been considered as among the world’s most sought-after mercenaries due to their vast combat experience acquired during decades of civil war, knowledge of Western military gear, and superior tactical education.

Reported Actions

In the Sudanese theater, the Colombians have allegedly instructed minors, instructed militiamen in drone operation, and engaged in frontline combat. A mercenary previously stated that training children was "awful and crazy" but added that "unfortunately that’s how war is".

Named Entities

Among those sanctioned was Álvaro Andrés Quijano Becerra, a dual Colombian-Italian national and former army officer located in the Dubai. The government said he had a central role in recruiting and deploying mercenaries to Sudan. His wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, was penalized as well.

Also on the sanctions list was Duque Botero, a dual Colombian-Spanish citizen who officials alleged ran a firm implicated in processing money and salaries for the recruitment operation. "Recently, American entities connected to Duque conducted several money transfers, amounting to millions," the government release said.

Citizen of Colombia Mónica Muñoz Ucros was the final person to be sanctioned, with the entity she oversaw said to have conducted money transfers associated with Duque and his companies.

"The United States again calls on outside forces to stop giving financial and military support to the combatants," the Treasury said in a statement.

Reaction

A senior analyst, with the International Crisis Group, called the actions as a "major" step, noting that "targeting the enablers is the correct approach".

Furthermore, the Colombian government recently passed a statute endorsing the International Convention Against the Recruitment and Use of Mercenaries, designed to limit its citizens' long history in overseas wars and transform its security approach.

Another expert, a authority on private military contractors, called for greater wariness, noting that "sanctions are necessary but insufficient for dealing with rampant mercenarism".

"It operates in the black market and based out of the UAE, which is largely insulated from sanctions," he stated. The UAE has been widely accused of supplying weapons to the paramilitary group, claims it rejects. "More contractors from Colombia are likely," McFate warned.