🔗 Share this article

The Washington has enforced penalties on a network of four individuals and four companies charged of hiring Colombian mercenaries to fight for and train a Sudanese paramilitary group that Washington accuses of genocidal acts.

Network Composition

Announcing the restrictions on this week, the American treasury stated the network was mostly comprised of Colombian nationals and companies.

Numerous of former Colombian military personnel have been recruited to go to the conflict in Sudan to combat beside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a faction accused of severe violations encompassing massacres based on ethnicity and mass abductions.

Discovery of Participation

The participation of ex-soldiers was first uncovered the previous year, after an investigation which found that over three hundred ex-military personnel had been contracted to participate in the war – an discovery that led to an unusual statement of regret from Colombia’s foreign ministry.

Colombian ex-soldiers have historically been seen as among the world’s most sought-after mercenaries due to their vast combat experience gleaned from years of internal conflict, training on advanced weaponry, and elite military instruction.

Reported Actions

In the Sudanese theater, the contractors have allegedly instructed minors, taught fighters to pilot drones, and fought directly on the frontlines. One source was quoted as saying that training children was "horrific and irrational" but commented that "unfortunately that’s how war is".

Sanctioned Individuals

Among those sanctioned was a retired Colombian officer, a individual with dual citizenship and ex-soldier operating from the United Arab Emirates. The government accused him a central role in recruiting and deploying ex-military personnel to Sudan. His wife, Claudia Oliveros, was also sanctioned.

Also on the penalty list was Mateo Andrés Duque Botero, a individual with Colombian and Spanish citizenship who authorities say ran a firm implicated in managing finances and payments for the recruitment operation. "Over the past two years, companies in the United States associated with Duque carried out several money transfers, amounting to millions," the Treasury statement stated.

Colombian national Mónica Muñoz was the fourth individual to be sanctioned, with the entity she oversaw said to have conducted financial transactions connected to Duque and his businesses.

"Washington reiterates its demand for external actors to halt the flow of funding and arms to the combatants," the agency announced.

Analyst Commentary

Elizabeth Dickinson, from a conflict think tank, described the sanctions as a "highly important" development, noting that "targeting the enablers is the correct approach".

She added that, the Colombian government has enacted a law endorsing the anti-mercenary convention, seeking to reduce years of participation by its nationals in overseas wars and reshape domestic defense strategy.

A mercenary specialist, a scholar on the subject, urged more caution, noting that "sanctions are necessary but insufficient for dealing with the growing mercenary trade".

"It’s an illicit economy and based out of the UAE, which is difficult to penalize," he said. The United Arab Emirates has been repeatedly implicated of providing arms to the militia, allegations it disputes. "More contractors from Colombia are likely," he advised.