Rebel violence has killed 60 people in Catatumbo

The death toll from attacks by a rebel group in Colombia’s Catatumbo region has risen to 60, the country’s human rights office has announced.

Rival factions have been vying for years for control of the cocaine trade in the region — which is close to the border with Venezuela.

The Ombudsman’s Office said the latest violence involved the National Liberation Army (ELN) — the largest armed group still active in Colombia — and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which signed a peace treaty with the state in 2016.

The attacks broke an uneasy truce between guerrilla groups in peace negotiations with the government.

The Office of the Ombudsman, which oversees the protection of citizens’ human rights and civil rights, previously announced that 40 people had died as a result of the violence.

It said many people, including community leaders and their families, were at “particular risk” of being kidnapped or killed by the ELN. He stated that 20 people had been kidnapped recently, half of them women.

The office said the dead included seven peace treaty signatories and Carmelo Guerrero, leader of the Catatumbo (Asuncat) Peasant Union Association, a local advocacy group.

Asuncat wrote on social media on Friday that members of its board of directors, Roger Quintero and Freiman Velasquez, had not been seen since the day before, and suspected that they had been taken by armed groups.

“In some communities in the region, food shortages have begun to be reported, affecting local communities,” the Office of the Ombudsman wrote in a statement on Saturday, adding that thousands of people had been displaced as a result of the violence.

“Elderly people, children, teenagers, pregnant women and people with disabilities are suffering the consequences of these events.”

“Catatumbo is once again stained with blood,” wrote the Association of Catatumbo Mothers for Peace on Friday.

“Exchanged bullets not only hurt those who own guns, they shatter the dreams of our communities, tear apart families and sow terror in the ears of our children.”

The ombudsman’s office appeared to blame the latest violence on the ELN, which had been in peace talks with the Colombian government until they were suspended by violence in Catatumbo on Friday.

President Gustavo Petro – who since his election in 2022 has sought to end the violence between armed groups in the country – accused the ELN of “war crimes”, and said that the group “shows no will to make peace”.

The ELN accused the Farc of starting the civil conflict by killing them in a rally on Saturday, according to the Reuters news agency. Farc has not publicly responded to the accusation.

On Saturday, the Colombian army announced that it would send additional troops to the region in an effort to restore peace.