TIBU, Colombia – A fresh outbreak of guerrilla violence amid a faltering peace process in Colombia has left more than 80 people dead, including civilians, and displaced around 11,000 in just four days, officials reported Sunday (Monday in Manila).
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 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.
“As a Colombian, it is painful for me to leave my country,” said Geovanny Valero, a 45-year-old farmer who fled to Venezuela, saying he hopes the situation in Catatumbo will be “sorted out” so he can return.
“In just four days, at least 11,000 displaced people have been reported and there could be many more,” said Iris Marin, head of the Ombudsman’s Office rights group, in a video broadcast on the social network X.
“There are indiscriminate attacks on combatants and civilians who are accused of collaborating with one group or the other,” she added.