Maroc - EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 26/Feb 00:49

Colombian Mercenaries In Sudan Show Internationalization Of Conflict

A single road cuts through the Libyan desert from the coastal city of Benghazi to al-Uwaynat on the northwestern border of Sudan. It was that road, analysts say, that carried dozens of Colombian mercenaries to fight on the side of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in late 2024. Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) attacked the caravan in November using a drone to kill 22 Colombian fighters before they could join the RSF’s siege of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state. North Darfur is the only state in western Sudan that remains out of the RSF’s control. According to the Colombian publication La Silla, the Colombian mercenaries were among 300 originally recruited to serve as security guards in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Emirati company Global Security Service Group. Authorities there later ordered at least 40 of those mercenaries to Benghazi and, from there, to western Sudan — part of the UAE’s support for the RSF in its conflict with the SAF. The Colombian government apologized to Sudan’s leaders twice after the caravan attack for the involvement of Colombian nationals on the side of the RSF. Sudan’s conflict is not the first time the UAE has sent Colombian mercenaries into battle. Colombians were among a group of 450 Latin American mercenaries the UAE recruited in 2015 to fight Houthi rebels in Yemen. The presence of Colombian mercenaries in Sudan was revealed in videos SAF soldiers posted on X after they attacked the convoy moving toward el-Fasher. The videos show soldiers going through an assortment of documents, including a passport belonging to Colombian mercenary Lombana Moncayo. British open-source investigative website Bellingcat used Moncayo’s social media posts to pinpoint the area in southeast Libya where Moncayo was traveling at the time. “Bellingcat determined this footage was filmed from a moving vehicle heading towards the town of Al-Jawf in southwestern Libya, approximately 300-400km from the border with Sudan,” researcher Carlos Gonzales wrote on the group’s website. According to Jeremy McDermott, co-founder of InSight Crime, the UAE is exploiting the fact that former Colombian Soldiers have few options for well-paid employment after they leave the military. “It’s not just the training, but it’s the combat experience. And this is where the Colombians are far and away ahead of most militaries in the world,” McDermott, whose group investigates organized crime in Latin America, told NPR. Colombian mercenaries have the added advantage that they’re cheaper than highly training ex-soldiers from other countries, McDermott said. La Silla Vacía has identified retired Colombian Army Col. Alvaro Quijano as the man behind the 300 mercenaries shipped to Sudan via the UAE. The mercenaries worked for International Services Agency A4SI (Academy for Security Instruction) owned by Quijano’s wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros. “This is a project that has deceived dozens of former Colombian military personnel with promises of work in the United Arab Emirates,” La Silla Vacía writers wrote in their report. A4SI co-founder retired Colombian Army Maj. Omar Antonio Rodríguez, who sold his share in the company to Quijano and Oliveros in 2022, told La Silla Vacía that Colombian mercenaries were previously employed as security for Emirati officials as they traveled to other countries. Rodríguez told La Silla Vacía that A4SI has not stopped recruiting since the deaths of Colombian mercenaries in Sudan. “If they manage to bring the 1,500 men they plan to send to Sudan, that could represent 32 billion pesos [$7.7 million] in one year,” Rodríguez told La Silla Vacía.