Armed conflict surged forced displacement and confinement in multiple parts of Colombia, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA.
In its quarterly report, OCHA said that the number of people who were forcibly displaced by armed conflict increased 37% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2023.
In total, the UN agency registered almost 18,900 newly displaced people, mainly from the southwestern Nariño province.
Throughout 2023, some 200,800 were forcibly displaced by armed conflict, said OCHA.
The number of people who were confined to their homes increased 166% to 44,700 throughout the Pacific and Amazon regions.
The Magdalena Medio region in northern Colombia saw major increases in both forced displacement and confinement because of an increase in hostilities between at least three illegal armed groups.
All affected regions are of major importance for the revenue of illegal armed groups.
The Magdalena Medio region has significant gold reserves, and the Amazon and Pacific regions have long been crucial for the illicit drugs trade.
OCHA said that ethnic minority groups were disproportionately affected by the violence caused by illegal armed groups.
The ongoing affectations against these indigenous peoples have caused cultural damage due to the impossibility of carrying out their traditional practices and impediments to grow their food in the mass emergencies. This has forced them to change their food diet and has weakened their self-governing structures due to threats to traditional leaders and authorities.
OCHA
In Cauca, a province in the Pacific regions, indigenous organizations warned last month that violence by guerrilla group EMC posed an “imminent risk of extermination” to their communities.
Indigenous in southwest Colombia “at imminent risk of extermination”
Ethnic minorities have long suffered most from armed conflict in Colombia because many of generalized racism, and the fact that many of their communities are located in the periphery.
With the exception of guerrilla group ELN, the illegal armed groups currently involved in armed conflict with each other or the security forces were formed by dissident members of demobilized illegal armed groups like the AUC and FARC.