Spokespeople for communities displaced from their homes on Colombia’s Caribbean coast say that the return of these people to their homes is too slow, due to a lack of government support, El Heraldo reported Monday.
Rafael Elias Fernandez, a representative for the Displaced Peoples Organization, said that the coastal communities have been “abandoned by the state” and that there are “many inconsistencies in the humanitarian aid” provided.
According to statistics collected by the International Red Cross, there are some 71,000 displaced Colombians living in Sincelejo, the capital of the coastal Sucre department.
The majority of these citizens were forced from their homes in the Montes de Maria mountain range and are now living in extreme poverty in the department capital.
Colombia’s National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation say that just 1,296 people from the region have been returned to their homes in the last five years.
Civil organizations that work with the displaced communities blame a lack of support by the Colombian government in this particular area for the delay.
“Although the state has received contributions from the international community in money … there are areas where nothing has arrived,” said Fernandez.
Other representatives for displaced communities have also said that the citizens are not receiving the aid the that they are entitled to, and that no land is being bought for them to help them move back to their homes.
Thousands of Colombians have been, and continue to be, displaced from their homes due to armed conflict by drug-trafficking and guerrilla groups.