Armed Attack Leaves Five People Killed In Ecuadorian Province Bordering Peru
Scene of the armed attack that left five dead on Saturday night in the Ecuadorian province of El Oro, bordering Peru. Photo: X
April 27, 2025 Hour: 1:45 pm
An armed attack on Saturday night left five dead in the Ecuadorian province of El Oro, bordering Peru, according to local press reports this Sunday, another episode of killings in the wave of violence that has rocked the country since the beginning of 2024.
RELATED:
Ecuador Earthquake Leaves 20 Injured, Exposes Structural Inequality and Resilience Challenges
Last night, in the El Guabo sector of El Oro, a group of armed men, apparently dressed in clothing similar to military uniforms, arrived in a vehicle at an area with nighttime entertainment venues, firing indiscriminately at those present, reported the Primicias portal.
A man and a woman died at the scene, while three other people died in health centers, where injured individuals remain in critical condition, according to preliminary information from the police.
Among the victims is a 20-year-old woman who, according to her family, had gone out to make purchases at a nearby pharmacy.
Preliminarily, authorities are working with the hypothesis that the attack is due to retaliation resulting from criminal violence, although it has not yet been confirmed whether the victims had criminal records.
Ecuador has been in an “internal armed conflict” since 2024 that the president, Daniel Noboa, declared to confront organized crime gangs, who he put into a “war” and called them “terrorists”.
Criminal organizations are behind the escalation of violence that led Ecuador to rank 2023 as the country in Latin America with the highest homicide rate, while 2025 has begun as the most violent year since records were made, with an average of approximately one murder per hour.
An attack in El Oro, a week after a similar incident in Manabí where five people were killed, raises concern about the growing violence in Ecuador. In the Manabí attack, perpetrated in an urbanization of Manta, unknown persons shot at least ten people in a house, resulting in the death of five individuals, including a Colombian citizen and one under seven.
In the same province, during the recent Easter holiday, twelve people were killed and nine others were injured after an armed attack was recorded in a joint of the community of La Valencia, rural area of the municipality of El Carmen.
The massacre took place around midnight on Thursday, when heavily armed men dressed in military-like clothing entered a rooster fight room and began shooting at attendees and inside an office.