Four people, reportedly from the indigenous Awa group, were massacred Thursday night in Colombia’s south-western Nariño department, El Espectador reported Friday.
The motive of the murder is not yet known. The victims are three men and one woman from the city of Barbacoas, and a special commission from the Awa people will go to the zone to verify and identify the bodies.
In recent months violence has increased in the area due to drug trafficking.
Around 15,000 Awa indigenous people live in the Nariño and Putumayo departments. Various cases of violence against the Awa have occurred in recent months.
In a U.N. report in August UNHCR stated that some of Colombia’s indigenous groups face extinction.