2024-09-09 14:30:33
According to the Ombudsman’s Office, illegal armed groups, mainly dissidents of the FARC, continue with the forced recruitment of minors, selective homicides, kidnappings, illegal checkpoints, among others; situations that make it difficult for these highly vulnerable communities to effectively and fully enjoy their rights.
Additionally, 8,630,545 people were forcibly displaced in Colombia as of March 31, 2024, according to the Single Registry of Victims. Of these, 6.9 million still need assistance or reparation of their rights.
Displacement, homicide, threats and forced disappearance are the victimizing events for which most people have been included in the Single Registry of Victims (RUV) of the Victims Unit.
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The population, the most affected
And according to the Ombudsman’s Office, during July 2024, 18 events of forced human mobility were recorded, distributed as follows: four events of mass forced displacement, three confinements and 11 events that involved risk of displacement and confinement.
The global panorama of these dynamics reveals that there is indeed a strong presence of illegal armed actors in the communities. This is framed within the framework of population dominance and control of illicit economies, which brings with it events that generate human mobility.
Furthermore, there are persistent incidents such as forced recruitment of minors, selective homicides, kidnappings, illegal checkpoints, among others; situations that make it difficult for these highly vulnerable communities to effectively and fully enjoy their rights.
For this reason, the entity urges the authorities in charge of enforcing the public policy for victim care to have the necessary tools to guarantee effective and efficient care within the framework of all emergencies that have been occurring at the national level.
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Mass forced displacement
In this order of ideas, the entity indicated that in July 2024, four events of massive forced displacement were reported and recorded in the department of Cauca, where there is a strong presence of armed groups outside the law in the town of Sinaí and its surrounding villages, including: Desiderio Zapata, La Cumbre, Cristales, La Libertad, La Mina, Encanto, Cabuyo and La Playa, in the Municipality of Argelia, where there are demonstrations by members of these groups. This generated an alert in the population due to the need to abandon their homes because strong fighting was approaching.
Other residents who are seeking, as they say, ‘to escape from the bullets’, are those from the municipality of Puerto Rondón, where approximately 70 displaced people from the El Progreso and Normandía areas sought shelter in the Shalom Church in the Normandía area.
From the same town, 64 people were forced to leave the villages of Progreso, Normandía and Esmeralda, who were housed in the boarding school of an educational institution.
In the department of Risaralda, the burning of a dump truck carrying construction materials by illegal armed groups generated fear in the territories of the indigenous communities of the unified reservations of the San Juan River and Gitó Dokabu, in the Agüita district of Santa Cecilia, municipality of Pueblo Rico.
Violence ‘locked them in’
And as for situations where the community has not been able to leave their homes due to violence, in July 2024 three confinement events were reported and recorded in the departments of Arauca and Valle del Cauca.
“In rural areas of the municipality of Arauquita, the first situation was recorded in the Lejanías area, where 66 families had to confine themselves due to the armed confrontation between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the National Army of Colombia, in addition to the constant presence of non-state armed groups,” the entity stated.
And in the Cesar area, 60 families were confined due to the continued presence of illegal armed groups and the confrontations that this entails.
The same situation was experienced by 283 people belonging to the Joaquincito Indigenous Reservation, located on the Naya River in the rural area of Buenaventura, who were confined due to the presence of the Central General Staff, the ‘Jaime Martínez’ column, in the upper and lower parts of the river, a group that has assumed hegemonic control in this territory.
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Populations at risk
In the same period analyzed, 11 events of risk of displacement and confinement occurred in Antioquia, where two events occurred, the first case occurred in the municipality of El Bagre, where the dynamics of organized armed actors, due to the presence of the Gaitanistas Army of Colombia, ELN and dissidents of the FARC, due to the armed dispute to obtain control of the territory of the Puerto Claver district and 14 affected villages (La Corona, Mellizos, Chiritá, Santa Teresa, Santa Isabel, Las Claras, El Oso, La Llana, Muquí, La Primavera, Santa Bárbara, El Castillo, La Primavera and Medios de Manicería), which has generated the risk of massive forced displacement.
The second situation was seen in the municipalities of Segovia and Remedios: due to the homicides that have been occurring in this sector, people have been receiving threats through word of mouth, to leave the territory. The alleged group responsible is the self-proclaimed Colombian Gaitanista Army EGC (formerly AGC).
Another of the affected departments is Caquetá, specifically in the municipality of Valparaíso, there is a risk of massive forced displacement, due to the fact that groups outside the law, such as the Comandante Raúl Reyes Front, are carrying out acts of proselytism by installing billboards, this added to the selective homicides that have occurred.
They are cruel to people
And the department of Chocó is where more situations have occurred, one of them in Carmen del Darién, and the communities of Cetino, Llano Rico and Nueva Esperanza are at risk, due to graffiti, flags and symbols alluding to the illegal armed group ELN, who claim to have arrived in the area to stay, which has caused great concern in the communities.
In the town of Bojayá, a tense situation arose, caused by the detention of the head of the Indigenous Guard of the Buchadó Amparradó indigenous reservation by the illegal armed group Ejercito Gaitanistas de Colombia-EGC. And the indigenous communities of Nueva Jerusalén, Peñita and Guayabal belonging to the Pichicorá Chicué and Punto Alegre indigenous reservations, are under the strong presence of illegal armed groups in their territories.
Now in the town of Rio Sucio, there is an increase in serious violations, such as forced family displacement, confinement, selective homicides, increase in illicit crops, exploitation of minors, restrictions on fishing, hunting and planting of subsistence crops, putting the indigenous, Afro and peasant peoples of the Salaquí and Truandó Basin at imminent risk.
And in Istmina, the inhabitants of Doido are at risk of displacement and confinement due to the strong presence of the ELN and the Colombian Gaitanista Army (EGC) in their territory. The same situation is being experienced in Sipí: in the rural area of the community of Chambacú, where the presence of the ELN has been detected. Simultaneously, at the mouths of Sipí, the presence of the Colombian Gaitanista Army (EGC) has been identified. The possible area of clashes between these two groups would be the northern part of the community of Chambacú, which could trigger mass displacement.
In addition, in the Cauca Valley, there is a risk of mass displacement from the Joaquincito indigenous reservation due to confrontations between illegal armed groups in their territory.