7.7 MN Victims of Violence in Colombia in Need of Relief: UN

Bogota, March 24 (IANS) The number of people in Colombia affected by violent clashes and needing aid has risen to 7.7 million, UN humanitarians said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 40 percent of those needing relief last year came from the indigenous community, reports Xinhua news agency.

They are only 4 per cent of the total population of about 52 million.

The humanitarian office said more than 25,000 people from the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities were newly displaced or forcibly confined due to violence since the beginning of this year.

The government and OCHA earlier this month launched a $283 million humanitarian response plan to reach 1.6 million people, primarily women, children, people with disabilities, and indigenous people.

In 2022, more than 202,000 people in Colombia were forcibly displaced or confined, largely because of violence by illegal armed group, according to the OCHA.

Some 119,000 people were confined to their homes or villages for more than a week last year, the highest number since the UN humanitarian agency began monitoring humanitarian crises in Colombia in 2008.

Almost 74,000 people were forcibly displaced because of violence, according to the OCHA's monitoring system, indicating a reduction compared to 2021.