More than 100 a thousand people are forcibly confined in Colombia due to the armed conflict six years after the signing of the peace agreement between the government and FARC guerrillas, warned this Thursday (24) to the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council (CNR).
“Imagine armed people forcing you to stay at home, day after day. The confinements in Colombia mean that you cannot work, visit your family or send your sons and daughters to school”, said the acting director of the CNR in Colombia, Juan Gabriel Wells.
A The NGO, which collects confinement figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has called on the government and armed groups to stop the practice of confining entire communities in their homes or territories.
“We call on the Colombian government and non-state armed actors to agree to a lasting peace that benefits vulnerable populations affected by these inhumane restrictions on mobility,” added Wells.
Persistent violence
The peace agreement was signed in 2016 of November 2016 in an act at the Teatro Colón, in Bogotá, and today, six years later, Colombia is still immersed in “six non-international armed conflicts”, according to Ocha, that affect millions of people.
Armed groups, details the CNR in a statement, “use forced confinement as a strategy to exercise control over communities and isolated territories that are often used for illegal activities ”.
“More than 2.6 million people had their movements restricted during the year alone 2016, with indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities being some of the most affected”, according to data from Ocha, cited by the NGO.
“The confinement and mobility restrictions that we are witnessing in Colombia are humiliating and degrading. Armed groups must commit to immediately ending this senseless practice,” said Wells.
Commitment to Peace Agreement
Despite continuing violence , the Accompaniment and Monitoring Committee (CSM) for the implementation of the Truth Commission’s recommendations for the non-repetition of the armed conflict commemorated the six years since the signing of the agreement, “an important navigation chart” for the cessation of violence.
“On this sixth anniversary, the Committee (…) ratifies its commitment to the Agreement and, to that end, enforces the recommendations of the Final Report of the Commission in favor of the rights of victims, for a Colombia where there are guarantees of full life for all people,” said the body created by the peace agreement in a statement.