The unusually deadly violence delivers a devastating blow to the “total peace” program of the country’s first leftist president, Gustavo Petro.

More than 8,000 civilians fled the violence, with many seeking shelter in government facilities or hiding in the mountains.

Inhabitants of the Colombian town of Tibu, on the northern border with Venezuela, have fled following a wave of violence that has left at least 80 people dead in clashes between two armed groups in the last week.

At least 80 people are dead and more than 18,000 have been forced to flee their homes in Colombia, officials say, amid fierce clashes between two rival armed groups on the border with Venezuela.

More than 80 people were killed in the country’s northeast over the weekend following the government’s failed attempts to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Army, a Colombian official said.

At least 80 people were killed in northeast Colombia following failed attempts at peace talks with the National Liberation Army, a Colombian official said.

His foreign minister just abruptly resigned. A deadly wave of violence between fighting guerrilla groups is endangering his nation’s hard-won peace accord, and 17 of his countrymen, former soldiers accused in the July 2021 assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moïse,

Displaced Colombians gathered at shelters to receive aid in the border city of Cúcuta on Jan. 20, after dozens were killed and more than 11,000 displaced in ongoing clashes between armed groups.

President Gustavo Petro will appoint top aide, 30-year-old Laura Sarabia, as Colombia’s next foreign affairs minister, one the youngest-ever officials to assume the role.

Terrified residents carrying backpacks and belongings on overladen motorcycles, boats, or crammed onto the backs of open trucks, fled the region over the weekend.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he will declare an emergency over the guerrilla attacks in the northeast that have killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee.