The wave of violence is the latest blow to President Gustavo Petro’s failing efforts to bring peace to Colombia by dialoguing with armed groups and 122,000 people in northern Colombia now require urgent assistance, according to the humanitarian organization Project Hope.
The unrest started in the surrounding Catatumbo region in mid-January when the ELN began warring with dissident factions of the now defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), killing 80 people, displacing 50,000 and prompting Petro to declare a state of emergency and cut off fragile peace talks with the armed rebels.
The mayor of Cúcuta imposed a 48-hour curfew on the population of 1 million inhabitants in the hope of regaining control of the city after combatants of Colombia’s largest armed group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), attacked police stations with assault rifles and grenades and destroyed toll booths with car bombs.
Residents of a violence-torn province in northern Colombia are bracing for further bloodshed as a conflict between rival armed groups spread to a regional capital in scenes residents said they had not witnessed since the cartel unrest of the 1990s.
New armed groups have since emerged to fill the void and Petro has made little progress with his efforts to bring peace by negotiating with all major armed factions.
