Colombia is one of the ten countries with the highest number of internal displacements in the world. A tragedy that last year affected 71 million people on the planet. This figure is from the Internal Displacement Observatory (IDMC) in Geneva and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
It is a humanitarian crisis that not only uprooted 71 million people in the world but also eroded their certainties.
An embarrassing record for humanity, which is more than three times the record recorded in the last decade. And although war and environmental devastation were the main causes, internal armed conflicts like the one in Colombia filled the asphalt of big cities with heart-wrenching images.
In the Nariño Pacific region, more than 1,500 people fled their territory last year, fleeing bullets.
“We have around 20 children in the shelter home here, some of them are suffering from vomiting, diarrhoea, fever and flu. It has given them the virus and they are in a bad condition due to the disease,” said a victim displaced by the violence.
Rosa Murillo, whose land was taken by armed groups in Isthmina, Chocó and denied the right to return, has been uprooted and hardened.
“My brother disappeared, they kidnapped me for two weeks and well, I came back here to Bogotá and decided not to return,” Rosa said.
According to the Geneva-based Observatory on Internal Displacement and the Norwegian Refugee Council, three-quarters of internally displaced people live in just ten countries.
One of those countries is Colombia, followed by Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ukraine. Not to mention what’s happening in the US, where it tops the list.
As of March 30 this year, there are 8,437,000 displaced persons in the country. For Victims Unit director Patricia Tobon, the main reason for this increase is the failure to comply with the Havana Agreements.
“This happens mainly because after the signing of the peace agreement, the negotiated areas are not taken over by the state, the areas where the groups have laid down their arms, and this causes other groups to come and occupy the areas. are limiting and displacing communities,” said Patricia Tobon.
And while this crisis does not stop, communities hope that the government manages to specify, at least immediately, in the framework of complete peace, humanitarian relief or, ideally, the silencing of guns.
