Rival groups have for years been fighting in the region over control of the cocaine trade.
The state signed a peace deal with FARC in 2016, after more than 50 years of war.
“There is a very critical situation in this region of the country,“ military commander General Luis Emilio Cardozo said Saturday.
“They have taken people from their homes and murdered them in a miserable way, violating all human rights of the people. It is up to us as the national army to stabilize the territory,“ Cardozo said, addressing hundreds of troops deployed in the region.
After he was elected in 2022, President Gustavo Petro launched negotiations with the ELN and other armed groups that still control parts of Colombia on a promise to pursue “total peace.”
Around 60 people have been killed across Catatumbo, Colombia’s Ombudsman Office said late Saturday, while some residents were “taking refuge in the mountains” to escape the violence.
Affected communities were also beginning to suffer from food shortages, the office said, calling on the armed groups to allow access to humanitarian assistance and cease all attacks against civilians.
“The Catatumbo region knows well that we had warned that if the 33rd Front of the ex-FARC continued attacking the population and failing to comply with commitments, there was no other way out than armed confrontation,“ it said in a statement published on X.
With a force of about 5,800 combatants, the ELN is one of the biggest armed groups still active in Colombia.
Talks with the ELN broke down for several months last year after the group launched a deadly attack on a military base.
More than 2,500 people have fled the violence to Tibu, the town’s mayor Richar Claro said Saturday.
“We are very afraid for the children and that we will be caught in the middle of the conflict,“ Carmelina Perez, 62, who had escaped with her grandchildren, told AFP.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil told state television that “hundreds of families” have been forced to take refuge in Venezuela.
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