A fresh outbreak of guerilla violence amid a faltering peace process in Colombia has left more than 80 people dead, including civilians, and displaced around 11,000 in just four days, officials reported Sunday.
As residents fled for their lives, the army deployed some 5,000 troops to the cocaine-growing Catatumbo region at the centre of a fast-escalating territorial war.
The National Liberation Army (ELN) armed group, officials said, launched an assault in Catatumbo last Thursday on a rival formation comprised of ex-members of the now-defunct Farc guerilla force who kept fighting after it disarmed in 2017.
Civilians found themselves caught in the middle, and by Sunday, it was estimated that “more than 80 people have lost their lives,” according to governor William Villamizar of the Norte de Santander department.
Terrified residents carrying backpacks and belongings on overladen motorcycles, boats, or crammed onto the backs of open trucks, fled the region over the weekend.