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The Washington has imposed sanctions on a group of several persons and entities charged of hiring Colombian mercenaries to support and educate a armed faction in Sudan which the US alleges of genocidal acts.

Operation Structure

Revealing the sanctions on this week, the Treasury stated the scheme was largely composed of individuals and businesses from Colombia.

Scores of ex-soldiers from Colombia have been recruited to go to Sudan to fight alongside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a group linked to severe violations including targeted ethnic killings and large-scale abductions.

Discovery of Participation

The role of these mercenaries initially emerged the previous year, prompted by an report which disclosed that more than 300 retired troops had been hired to engage in combat – an discovery that prompted an unprecedented apology from officials in Bogotá.

Former Colombian military 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, knowledge of advanced weaponry, and elite military instruction.

Activities in Sudan

In the Sudanese theater, the mercenaries have allegedly instructed minors, taught fighters to pilot drones, and engaged in frontline combat. One source remarked that training children was "awful and crazy" but commented that "regrettably, war operates that way".

Named Entities

Among those targeted was Álvaro Andrés Quijano Becerra, a individual with dual citizenship and retired Colombian military officer operating from the UAE. The US authorities alleged he played a key part in recruiting and deploying former Colombian soldiers to Sudan. His spouse, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, was also sanctioned.

Also on the sanctions list was Duque Botero, a individual with Colombian and Spanish citizenship who officials alleged ran a firm implicated in managing finances and payments for the scheme. "In 2024 and 2025, American entities linked to Duque conducted several money transfers, totalling millions of US dollars," the Treasury statement noted.

Individual Mónica Muñoz was the final person to be penalized, with the firm she operated alleged to have wire transfers associated with Duque and his businesses.

"The United States again calls on outside forces to cease providing monetary and weaponry aid to the belligerents," the department said in a statement.

Expert Analysis

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

It was also noted that, Bogotá ratified a law approving the global treaty against mercenarism, designed to limit decades of Colombian involvement in international fights and transform its security approach.

A mercenary specialist, an expert on mercenaries, urged more caution, saying that "penalties are required yet incomplete for combating the growing mercenary trade".

"This is a shadow economy and centered in Dubai, which is largely insulated from sanctions," he stated. The UAE has been widely accused of providing arms to the militia, an accusation it has denied. "More contractors from Colombia are likely," the expert cautioned.