Five people, including a three-year-old girl, were killed in Colombia in a massacre attributed Monday by the government to the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN).
The facts occurred Sunday in La Honda, a rural area of the department of Bolivar (north), the press service of this municipality told AFP.
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Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said that
"according to some versions"
this was
"a violent and targeted attack by the ELN against these people".
After announcing a security reinforcement in the region, Mr. Holmes announced a reward of up to $ 12,000 for information leading to the arrest of the murderers, and up to $ 14,200 for "Santiago", nom de guerre front commander Guillermo Ariza of the ELN.
Considered to be the last active guerrilla in Colombia following the peace agreement signed with the Farc in 2016, the ELN has so far not claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to the independent observatory Indepaz, a former member of the Farc was killed in this massacre (simultaneous murder of at least three people, according to the UN), the 90th this year of the former guerrilla transformed into a political party.
Founded in 1964 and inspired by the Cuban revolution, the ELN has some 2,300 combatants and a large support network in urban areas.
Colombia is facing this year one of the worst waves of violence it has seen since the peace with the FARCs, which the government attributes to armed groups financed by drug trafficking and illegal mining.
The internal war that has plagued Colombia for more than half a century has claimed more than nine million victims (dead, missing and displaced).