Authorities have determined that guerrillas attacked an oil pipeline in northeastern Colombia, provoking an environmental emergency in the region.
According to police, members of Colombia’s second largest rebel group, the ELN, triggered explosive charges along the Caño Limon-Coveñas oil pipeline, Bogota’s W Radio reported on Friday.
The explosives generated an oil spill and prompted an environmental emergency in the Catatumbo area in Colombia’s northeastern state of Norte de Santander.
The attack occurred in the village of El Aserrio in the rural zone of the Teorama municipality, and was allegedly carried out by guerrillas from the Hector Front of the ELN, according to W Radio.
The oil pipeline in this area of the country has been forced to stop production for the past eight days, owing to the fact that they have sustained two violent incidents in less than a week.
On Wednesday, a stretch of the same pipeline located in the Catatumbo region was allegedly attacked by guerrillas from the ELN. The attack came on the heels of a separate assault just a few days earlier on a different section of the same pipeline.
Efforts are currently underway to contain the oil spill from the most recent attack.
MORE: 2nd guerrilla attack on oil pipeline in northeast Colombia in 5 days.