Five people were killed in two days in an area of northeastern Colombia that has been turned into a scene of bloody clashes since the beginning of the year between two armed groups, a source close to local police said.
Two people were executed yesterday Sunday, three others were killed on Saturday in various communities in the province of Arauca, which borders Venezuela.
The conditions were identical each time: the victim was targeted by gunmen on motorcycles, who escaped without being caught in any of the five cases.
According to a journalist in the area, a person was killed yesterday in the early hours of the morning by fire in a neighborhood in the city of Arauca, the homonymous capital of the prefecture. Later in the morning, a man was killed under similar circumstances in Araukita, a neighboring city, in the center.
The previous day, in two separate attacks, two people were executed in the city of Saravena.
The fifth victim was killed the same day in a rural area, on the road that connects the communities of Esmeralda and Fortul.
Since the beginning of 2022, Arauca has been the scene of clashes between National Liberation Army (ELN) fighters, officially the last rebel group in Colombia, and former FARC insurgents, who reject the agreement. peace of 2016.
Some 40 people have been killed in the incidents. A spectacular bomb blast, using a car bomb, targeted the headquarters of local associations in the city of Saravena on Wednesday. One man was killed.
Under the surface of apparent normalcy, the situation was extremely tense at the weekend in the area, a traditional rebel stronghold, where many residents admitted that they live "in fear" of new violent incidents or clearing accounts, a team of the French Agency found.
Source: RES-EAP
