Around 80,000 people in northeastern Colombia are suffering the devastating consequences of an armed conflict that escalated on 15 January of this year. Caught in the crossfire between armed groups, thousands have been forced to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs while others remain trapped in their homes.
Miguel Ángel López, the director of a funeral home in Tibú, used to recover bodies that appeared along the roads of one of Colombia’s most violent regions, Catatumbo. On 15 January, he was murdered along with his wife and their 10-month-old baby while driving a hearse toward Cúcuta, according to local media reports. Only their 10-year-old son survived.
Less than 24 hours later, several former combatants who had signed the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP armed group were killed.
Since then, thousands have fled as a conflict between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the FARC group 33rd Front has claimed the lives of at least 80 people and displaced entire communities.
