A web of Colombian recruitment firms and former military officers has allegedly been financing and organising the deployment of hundreds of ex-soldiers to fight for a Sudanese paramilitary group, prompting Washington to impose sweeping sanctions on Friday targeting the individuals and companies at the heart of the operation.
The U.S. Treasury Department named Fenix Human Resources SAS, a Bogota-based employment agency, and its manager, Jose Libardo Quijano Torres, among those sanctioned. Also targeted were former Colombian Army Colonel Jose Oscar Garcia Batt, the owner of another Bogota-based recruiting firm, Global Qowa Al-Basheria SAS, and that company’s manager, Omar Fernando Garcia Batte. Under the measures, all properties and interests held by the designated individuals and companies within the United States are immediately frozen and blocked.
Treasury said hundreds of former Colombian military personnel had travelled to Sudan to bolster the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), serving in both combat and technical capacities across multiple battle fronts. The RSF, a paramilitary outfit that grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, has been locked in a devastating three-year war against the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023, a conflict that has reduced entire cities to rubble and triggered mass displacement on a scale rarely seen in modern times.
“This network has fueled the conflict, which has given rise to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and famines,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
The sanctions arrive as the international community struggles to marshal an adequate response to the catastrophe unfolding in Sudan. An international donor conference this week yielded pledges of more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.77 billion) in humanitarian aid, according to German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who announced the outcome on Wednesday. The conference, which followed earlier gatherings in London and Paris, was designed to refocus global attention on Sudan at a time when development spending by established donors is increasingly under pressure.
That pressure is partly a consequence of competing crises. As the war in Sudan grinds on, international attention and resources have been pulled toward the prolonged conflict in Ukraine and mounting tensions surrounding Iran, leaving aid agencies warning that funding for Sudan remains critically short of what is needed. The United Nations has described the situation in the country as the world’s largest humanitarian emergency, with millions facing famine conditions and cholera outbreaks compounding the suffering of displaced populations.
The use of foreign mercenaries by the RSF adds another volatile dimension to a conflict already drawing in regional powers. Several African and Gulf states have been accused of supplying arms or political support to one side or the other, undermining international ceasefire efforts. Friday’s U.S. action signals an attempt to sever at least one of the financial and logistical lifelines sustaining the fighting.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah