Forty-five soldiers stationed in the southwestern Colombian department of Nariño told national radio Thursday they have spent the past week without food and receive no response to calls for help.
According to the soldiers, all members of the Boyaca battalion, they are suffering hunger and find themselves in a “critical situation.”
The soldiers normally receive provisions twice a month, but received nothing on the 15th when an aircraft was expected to bring them food.
Since then, they have not received food and are receiving no response to their requests to deliver their provisions.
“Nobody is answering us,” soldier Alejandro Parra told W Radio. According to the soldier, they have no idea what is going on because “they tell nothing to our superior either.”
In a response, the responsible commander, Colonel Luis Emilio Cardozo of the 23rd Brigade, said the soldiers did have food until four days ago, but that the army has trouble delivering provisions because of the location of the soldiers who are operating in a mountainous area at some 9,000 feet.
“The soldiers know there exists a five-day margin,” the colonel told the same radio station, implicating that it may take another two days for food to arrive.