Dec. 10 (UPI) — The United States has blacklisted a network of four Colombians and four entities accused of recruiting former Colombian military personnel to fight in Sudan’s civil war.
The sanctions were announced on Tuesday by the US Treasury, which said the network was helping the Rapid Support Forces, a breakaway paramilitary unit that has been accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing and genocide in the nearly 1,000-day conflict.
The RSF has been waging war against the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023. According to the Treasury, the RSF has recruited hundreds of ex-Colombian military personnel since September 2024.
Colombian soldiers provide the RSF with tactical and technical expertise. They serve as infantry, gunners, drone pilots, vehicle operators and teachers, with some even training children, according to the Treasury.
“The RSF has shown time and time again that it is willing to target civilians – including infants and young children. Its brutality has deepened the conflict and destabilized the region, creating the conditions for terrorist groups to grow,” John Hurley, undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.
Colombian soldiers aided the RSF in its capture in late October of El Fasher in North Darfur after an 18-month offensive, committing alleged war crimes along the way, including mass killings, sexual violence and ethnically targeted torture.
The Treasury has identified and sanctioned Alvaro Andrew Quijano Becerra, a 58-year-old retired Colombian military officer, who is accused by the United States of playing a key role in the network from the United Arab Emirates. His Bogota-based International Services Agency was also sanctioned for seeking to fill the roles of drone operator, sniper and translator for the RSF through its website, group chats and town halls.
Colombia-based employment agency Maine Global Corp., Colombia-based Comercializadora San Bendito and Panama-based Global Staffing SA were the other three entities sanctioned.
The other three individuals on the blacklist were Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, Quijano’s 52-year-old wife; Mateo Andres Duque Botero, 50, the manager of Maine Global; and Monica Munoz Ucros, 49, alternate manager of Maine Global and manager of Comercializadora San Bendito.
“Today’s sanctions disrupt an important source of external support for the RSF, and hinder its ability to use skilled Colombian fighters to prosecute violence against civilians,” State Department spokesman Thomas Pigott said in a statement.
The sanctions freeze the US-based assets of those named while barring US persons from doing business with them.