Colombia: The highest number of war refugees in 23 years

[Judi Lynn]

Date: 01 Oct 2008

The highest number of war refugees in 23 years


In the first six months of 2008, the 'desplazados', the refugees from the internal conflict, have reached a record number of 270,675, about 41% more than the same period in 2007. "The national rate shows an average of 632 'desplazados' for every 100,000 inhabitants; between January and June, 1503 refugees were counted. This is the highest number since 1985", said Jorge Rojas, director of the 'Consultoría para los derechos humanos y el desplazamiento' (CODHES), one the main Colombian NGO's. "The geography of forced displacement extends to almost all of the national territory. Clearly – he added – the continuous exodus remains a serious, critical, sustained and prolonged expression of a humanitarian crisis that the country has not been able to overcome yet". The worst cases have been noted in the depts. of Antioquia, Bogotá and Meta: CODHES says the actual blame fall mainly on the re-armament of the far right paramilitary groups, the counter-offensive attempted by the guerrilla in the face of the government forces' advance and the fear that civilians could be recruited, against their will, by armed groups. According to the government numbers, in Colombia there are a total of 2.6 million 'desplazados', according to data from CODHES, which notes that this is a low estimate, goiven that thousands more people have yet to be accounted for.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MYAI-7K24SX?OpenDocument



Abandoning their precarious homes, carrying sick babies in their arms
- and a few belongings - hundreds of Colombians are forced to escape
from their villages every day. The country's rural inhabitants are
attacked indiscriminately by the different factions engaged in the
40-year-old civil conflict. In Lago Agrio (above), a little village on
the border with Ecuador, a group of terrorized Colombians beg for
refugee status. (Photo by Maria Cristina Caballero)