translated from Spanish: Clashes between armed groups leave more than 2,000 displaced in Colombia

More than 2,000 people have left the Colombian town of El Plateado, in the convulsive cauca department (southwest), over clashes between illegal armed groups that have been going on since last Friday, the Ombudsman’s Office said on Sunday (28.03.2021).
The agency detailed on Twitter that there are “more than 6,000 people in the civilian population exposed to the use of conventional and unconventional explosive devices by illegal armed actors.”
The Ombudsman’s Office added that it “had issued early warning in October 2020 for the presence of illegal armed groups and the serious violation of human rights in this territory.”
In Cauca there are drug trafficking groups, farc dissents and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas, which are contested several regions to grow coca and marijuana, as well as for illegal mining.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Americas Director José Miguel Vivanco expressed concern about mass displacement.
“They flee attacks between armed groups. Displaced people do not have sufficient food or water or decent shelters. We call for assistance from the Cauca governorate and the unit for victims and urgent protection for communities,” Vivanco said.
In addition to these clashes, 43 people were injured on Friday by the explosion of a car bomb in front of the mayor’s office of the municipality of Corinth, also in the Cauca, and the authorities are accused of the attack on a farC dissent called the Dagoberto Ramos Mobile Column.

Original source in Spanish