Colombia Records Over 3,500 Displaced People in Ituango

In Colombia, at least 3,500 people have been displaced due to heavy rains and violence unleashed by illegal armed groups in the Ituango municipality located in the Antioquia department. 

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Local authorities have offered shelter to over 1,000 displaced families in the municipal capital where at least 250 people arrived on July 22 due to strong rainfall. 

The situation pushed the Ituango Risk Management Council to declare a public calamity in order to receive the support of departmental and national entities to attend to the humanitarian emergency. 

Rural farmers, women, and children fled armed confrontation taking place between illegal armed groups for territory control in Antioquia. 

The meme reads, "Forced displacements continue in several localities such as El Limon, La Quebrada, among others. They are heading to Ituango's urban area."

"All the groups abuse the population without any institutionality to protect people's life, patrimony, and wellbeing. There is also no serious analysis of the structural causes of displacement because the seriousness of these systematic events continues to be denied," social activist Isabel Zuleta decried. 

Santa Lucia, Quebrada del Medio, El Quindio, Santa Barbara, El Limon, Las Brisas, El Chuscal, Los Sauces, La Granja, and El Cedral are the most affected communities.

In 2020, Antioquia's Unit for Victims director Wilson Cordoba confirmed 16 events of massive displacements in this department.