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The US government has enforced penalties on a group of several persons and entities accused of hiring Colombian mercenaries to combat alongside and instruct a armed faction in Sudan which the US alleges of acts of genocide.

Group Makeup

Announcing the measures on this week, the American treasury stated the scheme was mostly comprised of Colombian citizens and firms.

Hundreds of ex-soldiers from Colombia have reportedly travelled to the conflict in Sudan to operate with the RSF paramilitary group, a faction accused of horrific war crimes including massacres based on ethnicity and mass abductions.

Discovery of Participation

The involvement of Colombian fighters first came to light the previous year, prompted by an investigation which revealed that more than 300 retired troops had been recruited to fight – an revelation that prompted an unusual statement of regret from Colombia’s foreign ministry.

Colombian ex-soldiers have historically been seen as some of the most in-demand contractors globally due to their vast combat experience resulting from a long-running domestic war, training on Nato equipment, and superior tactical education.

Activities in Sudan

In the conflict, the mercenaries have allegedly instructed child soldiers, taught fighters to pilot drones, and engaged in frontline combat. A mercenary remarked that instructing minors was "awful and crazy" but added that "regrettably, war operates that way".

Named Entities

Among those penalized was a retired Colombian officer, a citizen of both Colombia and Italy and ex-soldier based in the Dubai. The government said he had a pivotal function in hiring and sending ex-military personnel to Sudan. His wife, Claudia Oliveros, was penalized as well.

Also on the penalty list was Mateo Duque Botero, a individual with Colombian and Spanish citizenship who officials alleged ran a firm linked to processing money and salaries for the scheme. "Over the past two years, US-based firms associated with Duque engaged in several money transfers, totalling millions of US dollars," the government release noted.

Citizen of Colombia Mónica Muñoz Ucros was the other individual to be sanctioned, with the entity she oversaw alleged to have financial transactions associated with Duque and his operations.

"Washington reiterates its demand for external actors to halt the flow of financial and military support to the combatants," the agency stated.

Reaction

Elizabeth Dickinson, with the International Crisis Group, called the sanctions as a "very significant" milestone, stating that "calling out those who are doing the contracting is the correct approach".

Furthermore, the Colombian government has enacted a law endorsing the global treaty against mercenarism, designed to limit its citizens' long history in overseas wars and transform its security approach.

Another expert, a scholar on the subject, called for greater wariness, saying that "restrictions are needed but not enough for addressing widespread use of contractors".

"This is a shadow economy and based out of the UAE, which is relatively sanction-proof," he said. The UAE has been repeatedly implicated of providing arms to the militia, an accusation it has denied. "More contractors from Colombia are likely," he advised.