More than 7 million people were displaced during Colombia’s armed conflict, according to the National Victims Registry.
Before this government agency took charge of maintaining the registry of conflict victims, NGO CODHES was commissioned by the country’s Constitutional Court to register the gravity of victimization through forced displacement.
Nevertheless, the mere scope of the victimization, a lack of documentation and the changing modality of the conflict make it impossible to produce general statistics.
Forced displacement per year
Forced displacement became a growing issue after the formation of paramilitary group in the Antioquia province in 1995, the year former President Alvaro Uribe became governor and legalized so-called “Convivir” groups. Between then and 2010, 15% of Colombia’s entire national territory was abandoned.
Source: National Victims Registry
Forced displacement per province
Antioquia, is Colombia’s second largest, but traditionally also one of Colombia’s most violent provinces. Almost one in every five internally displaced people in the country is from this province where more than 1.5 million people lost their home between 1985 and 2018.
Source: National Victims Registry
Forced displacement intensity
When calculating the number of displacement victims with the number of inhabitants, it becomes visible that the phenomenon was most intense in Choco, where the number of displaced people is equivalent to more than 90% of the local population.
Source: National Victims Registry
Why people were displaced in 2002
At the height of the tragedy, in 2002, mass displacement in Colombia was not due to war or combat, but because farmers were threatened. Contrary to public belief, only a small percentage of victims were displaced by combat.
In more than 14% of the cases farmers were forced to abandon their land because of incursions by the paramilitary groups promoted by Uribe, and guerrilla groups like the FARC and ELN.
Source: President’s Office
Who/what displaced the victims over time
The paramilitaries, and in particular the member groups of umbrella organization AUC, often with the support of corporations, politicians and wealthy landowners that ended up owning the abandoned land property, displaced by far the most people.
Estimation based on the following sources: 1985-1997 = Departamento Nacional de Planeación / 2000-2002 = Red de Solidaridad Social / Victims: National Victims Registry
Where most people were forcibly displaced
Source: National Victims Registry