Five children, members of an Awa indigenous tribe in south Colombia,
died of hunger and malnutricion in the past two weeks, indigenous
organizations say.
According to newspaper El Tiempo, local leaders of the Awa turned to national indigenous organization ONIC and the United Nations to denounce the inhumain situation the Nariño indigenous have to live in.
The leaders say they, aside the hunger, are subjected to arbitrary murders, massive displacement and isolation in recent years.
The situation in El Verde, where a group of 150 to 200 displaced indigenous found shelter after the FARC murdered 17 members of their community earlier this year.
Our people have no health care and are not enjoying basic alimentation. Since a few days, the people are not eating, because there is no food for them,” indigenous leader Jose Libardo Pai toldthe newspaper.
“We are also suffering the massacres and displacements, we are starving to death and suffering many diseases because we’re overcrowded,” the indgenous representative added.
The departmental government of Nariño, the Presidential agency for displacement, Accion Soccial, and Family Welfare have not left up to earlier promises to provide temporary shelter in La Verde, the indigenous representatives say. The feel abandoned by the state and ignored by society.
A Nariño government official told the newspaper the department already started building a Center for Nutricional Recovery where the Awa are staying and said she expected the children to be receiving help in two weeks.