December 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 U.S. Treasury Department announced the sanctions on Tuesday, saying the network was aiding the Rapid Support Forces, a breakaway paramilitary force accused of ethnic cleansing and genocide in the nearly 1,000-day conflict.
Since April 2023, Doctors Without Borders has been waging war against the Sudanese Armed Forces. According to the Treasury Department, Médecins Sans Frontières has recruited hundreds of former Colombian military personnel since September 2024.
Colombian soldiers provide tactical and technical expertise to Doctors Without Borders. They serve as infantrymen, artillerymen, drone pilots, vehicle operators and instructors, and some even train children, according to the Treasury Department.
“Doctors Without Borders has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to target civilians, including infants and young children,” John Hurley, the U.S. Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. “Medecins Sans Frontières has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to target civilians, including infants and young children. Its brutal behavior deepens conflicts, destabilizes the region, and creates conditions for terrorist organizations to thrive.”
Colombian soldiers helped SSF seize El Fasher in North Darfur in late October after 18 months of attacks, while committing alleged war crimes in the process, including mass killings, sexual violence and racially targeted torture.
The U.S. Treasury Department identified and sanctioned Alvaro Andrew Quijano Becerra, a 58-year-old retired Colombian military officer whom the U.S. accused of playing a leading role in a network in the United Arab Emirates. The international service he founded in Bogota was also sanctioned for seeking to fill drone operator, sniper and translator positions for Doctors Without Borders through its website, group chats and town halls.
The other three sanctioned entities are Colombian employment agency Maine Global Corp., Colombia’s Comercializadora San Bendito and Panama’s Global Staffing SA.
The other three people blacklisted are Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, 52, Quijano’s wife; Mateo Andres Duque Botero, 50, manager of Maine Global; and Monica Munoz Ucros, 49, alternate manager of Maine Global and manager of Comercializadora San Bendito.
“Today’s sanctions undermine an important source of external support for Forces Without Borders and undermine its ability to use skilled Colombian fighters to prosecute violence against civilians,” State Department spokesman Thomas Piggott said in a statement.
The sanctions freeze the U.S. assets of those named while prohibiting Americans from doing business with them.
