Colombia: renewed violence causes malnutrition among indigenous peoples

The resumption of armed conflict with rebel groups in Colombia despite the peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas in 2016, is causing serious problems of malnutrition among the country's indigenous and black communities, according to a report released on Friday.

Read also: Fighting on the Venezuela-Colombia border: six dead

"The dynamics imposed by armed actors in these territories, such as movement restrictions or the spread of mines and explosive devices, or simply fear, make people lose the ability to obtain food,"

said to AFP Nicolas Dotta, coordinator of the Colombian section of Médecins du monde.

The report entitled

prepared by the NGO, in collaboration with the National University of Colombia, was submitted to the Truth Commission which is investigating the crimes of the armed conflict within the framework of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).

It highlights in particular the situation of the Afro-descendant and indigenous populations of Choco (north), on the border with Panama, as well as that of the Awa ethnic group, in the department of Nariño (west), on the border with Ecuador. .

In Choco, clashes between guerrillas, paramilitaries and government forces

,

the report said.

Chronic malnutrition has been exacerbated by the epidemics of malaria and tuberculosis that persist in this jungle, where 89% of the population is black and indigenous, and which contains clandestine gold mines.

In the mountains of the Nariño jungle, the Awa are suffering from the dispossession of their land, located in areas where coca is grown.

, now suspended, and pressure from armed groups

have reduced their access to food, notes the report which considers the Awa

in our territories, said Awa representative, Robinson Pai, during the presentation of the report.

Read also: Venezuela: 8 soldiers killed in fighting on the border with Colombia

A new cycle of violence has emerged in Colombia with the expansion of drug trafficking and armed groups inherited from right-wing paramilitaries, dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who did not adhere to the peace agreement and rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last active guerrilla in the country.