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The US government has enforced penalties on a network of four individuals and four companies charged of enlisting Colombian mercenaries to support and educate a Sudanese paramilitary group the United States claims of acts of genocide.

Group Makeup

Disclosing the measures on this week, the US Treasury Department stated the operation was primarily made up of Colombian nationals and companies.

Hundreds of retired Colombian troops have been recruited to go to Sudan to fight alongside the Sudanese RSF militia, a force implicated in horrific war crimes including massacres based on ethnicity and mass abductions.

Emergence of Involvement

The participation of ex-soldiers first came to light in 2024, following an report which revealed that over three hundred ex-military personnel had been recruited to engage in combat – an discovery that led to an rare mea culpa from Colombia’s foreign ministry.

Colombian ex-soldiers have historically been seen as some of the most in-demand contractors globally due to their considerable warzone knowledge gleaned from a long-running domestic war, knowledge of Nato equipment, and superior tactical education.

Reported Actions

In the conflict, the contractors have been accused of teaching minors, taught fighters to pilot drones, and engaged in frontline combat. An individual involved remarked that training children was "awful and crazy" but added that "unfortunately that’s how war is".

Named Entities

Among those targeted was a dual national, a dual Colombian-Italian national and former army officer located in the United Arab Emirates. The Treasury alleged he played a central role in recruiting and deploying mercenaries to Sudan. His wife, Claudia Oliveros, was also sanctioned.

Also on the sanctions list was Mateo Andrés Duque Botero, a dual national who the Treasury stated managed a business accused of handling funds and payroll for the scheme. "In 2024 and 2025, American entities linked to Duque conducted multiple financial transactions, amounting to millions," the government release noted.

Colombian national Mónica Muñoz Ucros was the fourth individual to be sanctioned, with the entity she oversaw accused of wire transfers connected to Duque and his businesses.

"Washington reiterates its demand for external actors to cease providing financial and military support to the combatants," the agency said in a statement.

Reaction

Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, labeled the measures as a "highly important" milestone, saying that "targeting the enablers is the correct approach".

She added that, the Colombian government recently passed a piece of legislation approving the anti-mercenary convention, aiming to curb years of participation by its nationals in foreign conflicts and change national security policy.

Another expert, an expert on mercenaries, advised additional measures, saying that "sanctions are necessary but insufficient for addressing rampant mercenarism".

"It’s an illicit economy and centered in the UAE, which is largely insulated from sanctions," he stated. The Emirati government has been repeatedly implicated of arming the RSF, claims it rejects. "More contractors from Colombia are likely," McFate warned.