A bloody onslaught by the ELN guerilla group on rival fighters and civilians in northeast Colombia has risen to 80 in just over three days, the governor of the affected Norte de Santander region said on Sunday.
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“It is estimated that more than 80 people have lost their lives” in the ELN assault launched last Thursday in the Catatumbo region on civilians and dissidents of the Farc guerilla group who kept fighting after it disarmed in 2017, governor William Villamizar reported.
The last toll on Saturday was estimated at 60 people, including seven ex-FARC combatants, in five municipalities of the mountainous cocaine-producing region near the border with Venezuela.
Villamizar said about two dozen people had been injured and some 5,000 displaced in the fresh outbreak of violence, and described the resulting humanitarian situation as “alarming”.
The army said more than 5,000 soldiers have been sent to the region to “reinforce security”.
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The Farc disarmed under a 2016 peace deal reached after more than half-a-century of war.