1,300 displaced from Colombian village amid clashes between armed groups

Bogota, May 22 (efe-epa).- More than 1,300 indigenous people have abandoned their homes in a Colombian village due to clashes between armed groups, a peace monitoring group reported Friday.

They were forced to flee from Catrú, an indigenous reservation in Alto Baudo, in the Chocó Department on the border with Panama, according to the Organisation of American States’ Mission to Support the Peace Process (MAPP OAS).

The independent organization tweeted in Spanish that the forced displacement was caused by “clashes between illegal armed groups”.

“We demand an end to attacks against ethnic communities and we urge the authorities to protect the population of the territory,” it added.

Juan Carlos Ramírez, commander general of the Seventh Division of Colombia’s national army, said the military was “responding to the community’s call regarding alleged confrontations between illegals in the Catrú indigenous reservation”.

“At this time troops from the Seventh Division of the Army and the Colombian Air Force carry out operations with the purpose of protecting the population that lives in the region,” he posted in Spanish on social media.

More than 10,000 people were displaced by armed conflict in the country and another 7,300 were confined in the first quarter of this year, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The report also stated that more than 19,500 people were affected between January and March by natural disasters and another 100 had been injured by landmines and other explosive devices.

In the community of Alto Baudo, also in the Chocó Department, 2,055 people were forced to leave their homes in March due to clashes between armed groups.

The recent conflict came after the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC) said on Thursday that ex-guerrilla Robert Hurtado was assassinated in Chocó.

“Last night, at 11.00 pm, Robert Hurtado, a peace signatory, was assassinated,” it said in a statement in Spanish on social media.