Victims of Colombia’s bloody civil conflict sued the American banana importer Chiquita Brands International yesterday for making payments to a paramilitary group responsible for thousands of killings.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accuses the company of complicity in hundreds of deaths because of its financial support of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, also known by its Spanish initials, AUC. The plaintiffs include relatives of 387 people believed to have been killed by the right-wing group, which was responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia’s long-running conflict and was designated a terrorist group by the American government in 2001.

The families are seeking $7.86 billion in damages from Chiquita, which they accuse of abetting atrocities including terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

A spokesman for the Cincinnati-based company vowed yesterday that it would fight the civil lawsuit, one of several filed recently by Colombian citizens and human rights groups. Chiquita has acknowledged that its former subsidiary, Banadex, made $1.7 million in payments to the AUC between 1997 and 2004. The company has also acknowledged that the payments were illegal; it pleaded guilty this year to violating American counterterrorism laws and agreed to pay a $25 million fine.