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News > Colombia

Violence Displaced Over 8,000 Colombians in the Last 5 Months

  • Families leave their homes to head for the cities, Colombia, June 2021.

    Families leave their homes to head for the cities, Colombia, June 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @WRadioColombia

Published 29 June 2021
Opinion

Eighty-two percent of those displaced are "displaced without return" because they prefer to lose their possessions rather than go back to rural areas.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 8,642 Colombians were victims of forced displacement due to the violence unleashed in the departments of Choco, Nariño, Antioquia, and Cordoba in May.

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"Between January and May 2021, the number of mass displacement victims increased by 101 percent compared to the same period in 2020," the OCHOA report explained, adding that the number of mass displacement events increased by 31 percent compared to the first five months of last year.

Eighty-two percent of those displaced had to leave their communities due to threats made by illegal armed groups. These citizens are "displaced without return" because they prefer to lose their possessions and move to the cities rather than return to the insecurity that plagues rural areas.

In Nariño, 3,267 people were affected by the violence in the municipalities of Roberto Payan and Magui Payan. This number is equivalent to 37 percent of the victims nationwide.

The OCHOA also reported that 3,910 people were unable to leave their communities due to mobility restrictions caused by the violence. Some 2,739 of those affected citizens reside in the Choco department.

In 83 percent of these cases, the presence of landmines and clashes between the security forces and illegal groups were the main reasons for the mobility restrictions.

"In Colombia, contamination by antipersonnel mines and unexploded ordnance continues to be a worrying trend," the OCHOA report recalled and mentioned that the Norte de Santander and Nariño departments concentrate 60 percent of the victims of this problem.

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