More than 300 people fled Colombia’s Catatumbo region to escape fighting by rebel groups and have sought shelter in Cúcuta, a city near the border with Venezuela, Colombia’s Human Rights Ombudswoman Iris Marín said.
Marín said in a message posted on X on Monday night that the displaced people came from Tibu and El Tarra, two municipalities where fighting between rebel groups broke out in December.
In the message, Marín called on rebel groups “to cease combat and leave the civilian population out of the conflict,” according to the AP report.
The Colombian government deployed tanks and troops to Cúcuta on Saturday, the AP reported, after a U.S. raid in neighboring Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
The Catatumbo region has long been a battleground for drug traffickers and rebel groups seeking control, and it is also one of Colombia’s main coca-producing areas, the report said.
The AP report cited the scale of recent displacement as context: last year, more than 56,000 people were displaced from Catatumbo and at least 80 people were killed as the National Liberation Army carried out an offensive against a rival group known as the FARC-EMC.
The humanitarian crisis prompted Colombia to suspend peace talks with the National Liberation Army, which began in 2022, the report said.
Colombian officials have said the country was preparing for a potential wave of Venezuelan refugees, though the AP said that has not materialized so far as the situation in Venezuela appears to have stabilized, with Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez sworn in as interim leader.
On Tuesday, Gloria Arriero, director of Colombia’s National Immigration Service, told reporters that foot traffic along the border had not changed significantly since the attack on Venezuela.
Arriero said at a news conference that approximately 60,000 people enter Cúcuta and leave the city each day, adding, “We feel calm, because the flow of people has not increased.”