United States Imposes Sanctions Over Colombian Mercenaries in Sudan
CAIRO – The United States has enacted sanctions against three individuals and two companies involved in recruiting and deploying Colombian mercenaries to assist paramilitary rapid support forces (RSF) in Sudan, a conflict that has now entered its fourth year without resolution.
These sanctions, announced by the Treasury Department late Friday, are part of ongoing measures against the RSF, which has been engaged in ongoing hostilities with Sudanese forces since April 2023. Human rights organizations have accused the group of committing atrocities equivalent to war crimes and crimes against humanity during a conflict that has triggered a severe humanitarian crisis.
The RSF, which emerged in the early 2000s from the notorious Arab Janjaweed militia, has a dark history marked by brutality against individuals identified as East or Central Africans, particularly in Sudan’s western Darfur region. The humanitarian fallout from this war has been profound, making it one of the most significant crises facing the world today.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control implicated the sanctioned parties in activities that involved “recruiting and sending former Colombian military personnel to Sudan to fight for the RSF.” Among those sanctioned is Phoenix, a Bogotá-based employment agency established last year, which took over from A4SI, another firm previously sanctioned in December for its role in supporting the RSF.
Both Phoenix and A4SI were founded by retired Colombian military officer Alvaro Andres Quijano Becerra and his spouse. The Treasury Department has confirmed their names appear on a sanctions list related to Sudan.
The recent sanctions also target another Bogotá-based recruitment agency, GQAB, as well as three individuals: Phoenix’s manager Quijano Torres, GQAB’s owner José García Batte, and the agency’s manager and legal representative Omar García Batte. All three are Colombian nationals, as per the Treasury Department’s records.
Reports indicate that since 2024, hundreds of former Colombian soldiers have been dispatched to Sudan to bolster the warring militias. Their involvement has included combat and technical roles, significantly influencing battles across the country.
The United States has accused the RSF of carrying out numerous human rights violations, including “summary executions, ethnically targeted attacks, sexual and gender-based violence, and torture” in territories under their control, with recent allegations emerging from El Fasher, Darfur. In December, the State Department asserted that RSF members had committed “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing.”
Particularly alarming was an RSF assault on El Fasher in October, which UN experts described as having “characteristics of genocide.” According to the United Nations, this attack resulted in at least 6,000 fatalities in a mere three days.
The conflict erupted on April 15, 2023, following escalating tensions between the military and the RSF, which quickly devolved into open fighting in Khartoum and subsequently spread throughout northeastern Africa. As of now, the war has reportedly claimed at least 59,000 lives, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. However, a U.S.-based war tracking organization highlights that the actual number of casualties is likely much higher due to reporting challenges.
This ongoing war has engendered the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with approximately 34 million Sudanese citizens in dire need of assistance—representing nearly two-thirds of the population—according to United Nations estimates.
