At least 80 killed, thousands displaced in Colombian guerrilla violence
More than 80 people were killed in recent days in clashes between rival guerrilla groups in northeast Colombia, officials said. The National Liberation Army (ELN) armed group launched an assault in the Catatumbo region last Thursday on combattants of the former FARC guerrilla force who kept fighting after it disarmed in 2017.
A fresh outbreak of guerrilla violence amid a faltering peace process in Colombia has left more than 80 people dead, including civilians, and displaced thousands in just four days, officials reported Sunday.
As residents fled for their lives, the army deployed some 5,000 troops to the cocaine-growing Catatumbo region at the center of a fast-escalating territorial war.
The National Liberation Army (ELN) armed group, officials said, launched an assault in Catatumbo last Thursday on a rival formation comprised of ex-members of the now-defunct FARC guerrilla force who kept fighting after it disarmed in 2017.
Civilians found themselves caught in the middle, and by Sunday, it was estimated that "more than 80 people have lost their lives," according to governor William Villamizar of the Norte de Santander department.
Terrified residents carrying backpacks and belongings on overladen motorcycles, boats, or crammed onto the backs of open trucks, fled the region over the weekend.
Hundreds found refuge in the town of Tibu, where several shelters were set up, while others crossed the border to Venezuela -- for some a return to a country from where they had fled economic and political upheaval.
Venezuela announced the launch of "a special operation to assist the civilian population displaced from Colombia," -- hundreds of families according to the government in Caracas.
House to house
(AFP)
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