More than 27,000 displaced in Colombian violence this year Latin American news

The human rights ombudsman says there is an increase in displacement between threats, killings and violence between armed groups.

More than 27,000 people have been displaced in Colombia in the first quarter of 2021, the country’s human rights ombudsman said, while the South American nation suffers from an abundance of violence.

People have been forced out of their homes by threats, killings, forced recruitment by armed gangs and clashes between armed groups in illegal areas, the ombudsman said on Monday.

Displacements in the first quarter of 2021 rose 177 percent from the same period last year.

Colombia has seen an increase in violence amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the United Nations said in February that the country would continue to “suffer from endemic violence” through 2020.

“Violence in various parts of Colombia has increased and territorial and social control has increased with non-state armed groups and criminal groups,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said annually. report.

The UN said last year that more and more massacres of human rights defenders and human rights violations had been documented in areas where the state did not have a strong presence.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also said in March Colombia continued to have at least five conflicts with armed groups that were influencing the daily lives of Colombians.

The group has killed at least 389 people (mostly civilians) after explosives killed them in 2020, the highest clash since 2016.

The Colombian government signed a peace agreement in 2016 with left-wing Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) rebels, which aimed to end the conflict that killed more than 260,000 people and displaced millions. But the violence has gradually increased.

At the end of March the government denounced FARC dissidents – Those who rejected the 2016 peace agreement – A car bomb exploded in the town of Corinth, about 60 kilometers south of Calint in western Colombia.

The attack injured dozens, including several public officials.

At the same time, he was the most popular former FARC leader He asked the United States for help Colombia established a peace agreement.

In a letter, Rodrigo Londono He highlighted the ongoing killings of former fighters and social leaders and called on the US Congress to “take a final decision to re-establish the Peace Agreement in a comprehensive manner for the Colombian government.”

He also called on the US to urge Bogota to “embark on a promising process for the development of our country to eliminate drug trafficking, modernize the territory and take sustainable proposals to protect lives.”