BOGOTÁ, Colombia: Nine people were killed in fighting between two Colombian guerrilla groups, a regional governor said yesterday, even as progress was reported in negotiations seeking an end to decades of armed conflict in the South American nation.
Governor Wilinton Rodriguez of the eastern Arauca department revealed that an additional five individuals, among them a teenage girl from an Indigenous community, sustained injuries during the hostilities. The skirmish involved members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissidents from the FARC guerrilla group, which had disarmed in 2016.
The governor did not specify whether the casualties were combatants or civilians.
The ELN and the dissident group known as the Central General Staff have been engaged in renewed clashes since the weekend in the municipality of Puerto Rondon, situated near the Venezuela border.
On the same day, the ELN concluded its fourth round of peace negotiations with the government in Venezuela. These negotiations align with the vision of leftist President Gustavo Petro, who has been actively pursuing “total peace,” a strategy that also encompasses dialogue with FARC dissidents.
Colombia has endured over five decades of conflict, with the government on one side and various factions, including leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug cartels, and other criminal organizations, on the other.
The Arauca department, a region notorious for cocaine trafficking and the illegal extraction of minerals due to a lack of security forces, has been a frequent battleground for violent confrontations.
