The UK has imposed immediate sanctions on three Colombian nationals accused of recruiting former military personnel to fight for Sudanese paramilitary forces, as part of a crackdown on networks fuelling what the World Health Organization has called one of the worst humanitarian crises of the century.
Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, Mateo Andres Duque Botero and Alvaro Andres Quijano Becerra face asset freezes and travel bans for allegedly deploying Colombian fighters to train and fight for the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s ongoing conflict.
The measures, announced Thursday by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper following her visit to the Sudan-Chad border at Adre, form part of a six-person sanctions package targeting individuals suspected of committing atrocities or supplying mercenaries and military equipment to warring factions.
Cooper met women at the border crossing whose children had been killed by roving militias and who had themselves been raped and left for dead. She also spoke with frontline humanitarian responders attempting to deliver food and medicine to millions of displaced Sudanese people.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated earlier this month that Sudan represents not just the world’s worst humanitarian crisis but one of the worst of the current century. Statistics show 9.3 million people displaced within Sudan, 4.3 million refugees in neighbouring countries including Chad, and over 21 million suffering acute food insecurity.
The sanctions also target senior military commanders from both the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces whose soldiers are suspected of massacres against civilians and using rape as a weapon of war. Hussein Barsham, an RSF field commander, faces designation for responsibility for mass atrocities including ethnic violence and forced displacement in Darfur. Abu Aqla Mohamed Kaikal, leader of the Sudan Shield Forces under SAF command, is sanctioned over atrocities committed in Gezira state in early 2025.
Financial networks supporting the conflict have been disrupted through designation of Mustafa Ibrahim Abdel Nabi Mohamed, director of the UK-sanctioned al-Khaleej Bank. He is suspected of helping illicitly finance the RSF’s military campaign as financial adviser to the group’s leader and majority shareholder of Shield Protective Solutions Co. Ltd.
Cooper stated: “At the Sudan-Chad border this week, I met women and children who have suffered unimaginable violence, and barely escaped with their lives. For their sake, and the millions of other civilians caught in the middle of this conflict, we urgently need a ceasefire, and safe access for humanitarian relief agencies to reach all those in need.”
The Foreign Secretary emphasized ensuring “there is a price to pay for the military commanders who have allowed these atrocities to take place, and the callous profiteers who have fuelled this conflict with the supply of mercenaries and weaponry.”
Britain allocated an additional £21 million in December for relief efforts, bringing total UK contribution to £146 million for the current financial year, providing lifesaving aid to more than 800,000 people.
The UK will prioritize Sudan during its February UN Security Council presidency, pressing for stronger action on humanitarian relief, accountability for atrocities and coordinated international pressure on warring parties. In April, Britain will co-host with Germany an international conference marking the conflict’s third anniversary to mobilise efforts to end the war.
The new sanctions follow designations imposed on 12 December 2025 against four RSF commanders suspected of responsibility for atrocities.
