‘There’s no one left’: Renewed guerrilla violence forces Colombian civilians to flee
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Civilians in the Catatumbo region of northern Colombia are fleeing a new outbreak of fighting between rebel groups vying for control of this strategically important drug trafficking area. On January 16, a group called ELN launched an attack on combatants of the former FARC guerrilla force. More than 50 people have been killed so far, and thousands displaced. Our team talked to two residents of the area.
“Santiago” [his name has been changed to protect his identity] is a teacher at a rural school. He was there when the fighting broke out.
That day we began to hear explosions in the distance and gunfire, as if they were fighting back. One of the parents came to the school and said: 'Teacher, you need to get out of here. There's fighting. You need to get out before things get worse.’
So we shut up the classrooms and closed down the school.
Everyone went home. We've been shut up in our homes ever since.
As soon as the fighting started, people started leaving the rural areas. In the area where our school is, there's no one left.
People are scared of the ELN coming to their region because they are known to have massacred civilians.