Colombian Mercenaries Fighting For Sudanese Forces Suspected Of War Crimes: Report

Companies registered in the UK have been recruiting hundreds of former Colombian military members to fight with Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group accused of war crimes and genocide, according to a new report.

The Guardian noted that the mercenaries have been directly involved in the RSF's seizure of the city of El Fasher in late October, which led to a massacre that killed at least 60,000 people, according to analysts.

The outlet then uncovered connections between the RSF and addresses in London. Two Colombians who have set up a company called Zeuz Global in an apartment in Tottenham were sanctioned last week by the U.S. treasury for hiring Colombian mercenaries.

The U.S. accused one of the men, Álvaro Andrés Quijano Becerra, of playing a key role in the recruitment and deployment of forces to the African country. His wife was also sanctioned for owning and managing the business.

The presence of Colombian mercenaries in the conflict had already been documented. Another report by the same outlet in October noted that Colombian fighters were hired to train fighters, many of them children.

Moreover, Colombian outlet La Silla Vacía,found that more than 300 former soldiers had been contracted by a third country to fight in Sudan's civil war. The Guardian also collected testimonies of Colombians admitting they trained child soldiers and were seen in Zamzam, the largest displacement camp in Sudan.

In August, Mohamed Khamis Douda, a spokesman for the Zamzam camp in Darfur, confirmed to the Sudan Tribune the presence of "foreign mercenaries" in the region. "We have witnessed with our own eyes a dual crime: the displacement of our people by the RSF militia, and now the occupation of the camp by foreign mercenaries," he said.

According to The Guardian, the United Arab Emirates, which has been accused of backing the RSF, allegedly hired the mercenaries through private security firms, claims the UAE has denied.

A man identified as Carlos, a Colombian hired earlier this year who asked to remain anonymous, told The Guardian his first task was training Sudanese recruits, most of them children.

"The camps had thousands of recruits, some adults, but mostly children, lots and lots of children," he said. "These are children who have never held a weapon. We taught them how to handle assault rifles, machine guns, RPGs. After that, they were sent to the front. We were training them to go and get killed."

Carlos described the training as "awful and crazy," adding "unfortunately that is how war is."

According to his testimony, he was offered a $2,600‑a‑month contract to travel to Africa. After medical exams in Bogotá, he was flown to Ethiopia, then to an Emirati military base in Bosaso, Somalia. Subsequently, he was taken to Nyala in South Darfur.

Experts consulted by The Guardian say Colombia's decades-long internal war against drug cartels and paramilitary groups has produced a surplus of seasoned combatants, many of whom received U.S. military training, making them highly sought after as mercenaries.