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The Washington has levied restrictions on a group of four people and four firms charged of recruiting South American contractors to support and educate a Sudanese paramilitary group that Washington accuses of genocidal acts.

Network Composition

Revealing the sanctions on Tuesday, the American treasury stated the scheme was mostly comprised of Colombian citizens and firms.

Scores of ex-soldiers from Colombia have reportedly travelled to the conflict in Sudan to operate with the RSF paramilitary group, a faction implicated in terrible atrocities such as targeted ethnic killings and mass abductions.

Revelation of Role

The role of these mercenaries initially emerged last year, after an investigation which revealed that hundreds of former soldiers had been contracted to engage in combat – an discovery that resulted in an rare mea culpa from officials in Bogotá.

Former Colombian military have widely regarded as highly prized fighters in conflict zones due to their extensive battlefield experience gleaned from a long-running domestic war, knowledge of Western military gear, and high-level combat training.

Reported Actions

In the conflict, the contractors have allegedly instructed child soldiers, provided drone warfare training, and participated in direct battles. One source remarked that training children was "horrific and irrational" but commented that "unfortunately that’s how war is".

Sanctioned Individuals

Among those sanctioned was Álvaro Andrés Quijano Becerra, a individual with dual citizenship and former army officer based in the United Arab Emirates. The US authorities said he had a central role in recruiting and deploying former Colombian soldiers to Sudan. His wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, was similarly targeted.

Also on the penalty list was Mateo Andrés Duque Botero, a dual Colombian-Spanish citizen who authorities say oversaw a company linked to managing finances and payments for the network. "Recently, American entities associated with Duque carried out numerous wire transfers, totalling millions of US dollars," the government release stated.

Citizen of Colombia Mónica Muñoz was the final person to be penalized, with the entity she oversaw said to have conducted wire transfers linked to Duque and his businesses.

"The United States again calls on outside forces to stop giving monetary and weaponry aid to the combatants," the agency stated.

Reaction

Elizabeth Dickinson, with the International Crisis Group, called the actions as a "very significant" step, saying that "targeting the enablers is the proper strategy".

It was also noted that, Colombia ratified a statute endorsing the anti-mercenary convention, seeking to reduce decades of Colombian involvement in foreign conflicts and change national security policy.

A mercenary specialist, a scholar on the subject, called for greater wariness, stating that "sanctions are necessary but insufficient for combating rampant mercenarism".

"This is a shadow economy and based out of the Emirates, which is relatively sanction-proof," he commented. The United Arab Emirates has been frequently alleged of supplying weapons to the paramilitary group, an accusation it has denied. "This trend will probably continue," the expert cautioned.