Nine people, including four police officers, were killed in Colombia in three separate armed attacks, authorities said on Sunday (June 27th).
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Three police officers who were not on duty were murdered in an "
indiscriminate
"
attack
in the northeastern town of Pailitias which injured a pregnant woman, according to a police statement. The attackers have not been identified but police suspect ELN, the last active guerrilla in Colombia, known to operate in the region. In the south of the country, five men were found dead in San Vicente del Caguan, mayor Julian Perdomo told AFP, lamenting that "
frequently, peasants are found murdered
".
These attacks are blamed by the authorities on dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) who rejected a 2016 peace agreement that led to the disarmament of the guerrillas.
A fourth policeman died in "
an incursion by an armed group
" in an affluent area of the city of Cali (southwest), according to Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina.
According to the military intelligence services, FARC dissidents and ELN guerrillas are active around Cali, the third largest city in the country, as well as paramilitary groups.
45 massacres since the beginning of the year
Colombia is currently facing the worst wave of violence it has seen since the disarmament of the FARC.
The government of President Ivan Duque accuses the various armed groups vying for control of drug trafficking and illegal mining.
Almost six decades of conflict have claimed more than nine million victims in this country (dead, missing and displaced).
Read also: A leader of the ex-Farc killed in Venezuela
The independent Observatory Indepaz estimates at 45 the number of massacres - simultaneous assassination of at least three people according to the UN definition - committed in Colombia since the beginning of the year. The helicopter in which Colombian President Ivan Duque was traveling was the target of gunfire near the Venezuelan border on Friday. This is the first attack against a Colombian head of state since that committed by the FARC in February 2003 against Alvaro Uribe, Ivan Duque's political mentor.
