60 people were killed in the insurgent violence in Kattumba

The death toll from attacks by a rebel group in Colombia’s Catatumbo region has risen to 60, the country’s human rights office said.

Rival factions have been fighting for years for control of the cocaine trade in the region, which is located near the border with Venezuela.

The ombudsman’s office said the latest violence involves the National Liberation Army (ELN) – the largest armed group still active in Colombia – and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which signed a peace deal with the country in 2016.

The attacks broke an uneasy truce between guerrilla groups that had been holding peace talks with the government.

Earlier, the Office of the Ombudsman, a government agency that protects the human and civil rights of citizens, reported that 40 people had died in the violence.

It said many people, including community leaders and their families, faced a “particular risk” of being abducted or killed at the hands of the ELN. It is noted that 20 people were kidnapped recently, half of them women.

The office said that among the dead were seven signatories to the peace treaty and Carmelo Guerrero, leader of the Association of Peasant Unity in Cattumba (Asuncat), a local advocacy group.

Asuncat wrote on social media on Friday that Roger Quinter and Freiman Velázquez, members of the board of directors, had not been seen since the previous day and that he suspected they had been captured by armed groups.

“Food shortages are beginning to be reported in some communities in the region, affecting local communities,” the ombudsman’s office said in a statement on Saturday, adding that thousands of people were believed to have been displaced by the violence.

“Elderly people, children, teenagers, pregnant women and people with disabilities suffer the consequences of these events.”

“Catatumba is again stained with blood,” the Catatumba Mothers for Peace Association wrote on Friday.

“The exchange of bullets not only harms those who hold guns, it tears apart the dreams of our communities, destroys families and sows terror in the ears of our children.”

The ombudsman’s office appeared to place the blame for the latest violence on the ELN, which had been in peace talks with the Colombian government until they were suspended on Friday due to violence in Catatumbo.

President Gustavo Petra – who has sought to end violence between armed groups in the country since his election in 2022 – accused the ELN of “war crimes” and said the group “shows no readiness for peace”.

In a statement on Saturday, the ELN accused the Farc of instigating the conflict by killing civilians, Reuters reported. The Farc has not publicly responded to the allegations.

On Saturday, Colombia’s army announced it was sending additional troops to the region to restore peace.