By Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Surging violence in Colombia caused the number of people internally displaced, forced to restrict their movements and injured or killed by explosives to hit the highest in five years in 2021, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday.
The South American country’s internal armed conflict has burned for almost six decades, leaving at least 260,000 dead and millions displaced, and fighting continues despite the signing of a peace deal between the government and the demobilized guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016.
All six fronts in the conflict saw an uptick in violence in 2021, sowing fear among civilians in areas where the still-active National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, crime gangs like the Clan del Golfo and the military clash for control, according to the ICRC.
“The main cause is the restructuring of armed groups and the struggle for territorial control,” said Lorenzo Caraffi, head of the ICRC delegation in Colombia.
Security sources and advocacy groups say contested areas – often in rural parts of the country or along its borders with Venezuela and Ecuador – are strategic for cocaine production and illegal gold mining.
Colombia saw 486 victims of explosive devices including 50 deaths and 436 people injured in 2021, up from 392 victims in 2020, the ICRC said.
Some 52,880 people were displaced from their homes last year, more than double that reported in 2020, the group said.
Forced confinements – when armed groups oblige civilians to stay home or only travel to certain areas – rose 60%, with 45,108 people suffering restrictions.
“We are concerned about the trends we are seeing in victim numbers and the entrenchment of certain patterns,” Caraffi said.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
