U.S. Targets Alleged Financial Network Tied to Colombian Mercenaries in Sudan

The United States has imposed sanctions on four individuals and four companies it says helped recruit, pay and deploy Colombian mercenaries to fight for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to The Guardian.

The U.S. Treasury Department said the network is largely made up of Colombian nationals and companies and has moved hundreds of former Colombian soldiers into Sudan, where they have fought alongside the RSF and provided specialist training. The RSF has been accused of “horrific war crimes,” including ethnically targeted killings and large-scale abductions, according to the report.

Among those designated is Álvaro Andrés Quijano Becerra, a dual Colombian-Italian national and retired Colombian military officer based in the United Arab Emirates. U.S. authorities accuse Quijano Becerra of playing a central role in recruiting and deploying ex-Colombian soldiers to Sudan. His wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, was also sanctioned as part of the same network.

A third individual is Mateo Andrés Duque Botero, a dual Colombian-Spanish citizen whom the U.S. officials say managed a business that handled funds and payroll for the network hiring Colombian fighters. According to the Treasury’s statement, U.S.-based firms associated with Duque conducted wire transfers in 2024 and 2025 totaling “millions of US dollars.”

The fourth sanctioned individual, Mónica Muñoz Ucros, a Colombian national, managed a company that allegedly carried out additional wire transfers linked to Duque and his businesses.

Hundreds of former Colombian military personnel are believed to have travelled to Sudan to support the RSF, The Guardian said. In Sudan, these fighters have reportedly trained child soldiers, taught RSF forces to pilot drones and fought on the front lines, including in the siege of El Fasher.

One mercenary told The Guardian and Bogotá-based outlet La Silla Vacía that while training children was “awful and crazy,” he viewed it as an inevitable part of war.

Sean McFate, a specialist on mercenaries who spoke with the news outlet, described the trade as “an illicit economy and based out of Dubai, which is relatively sanction-proof.”

Read more from the U.S. Treasury Department here