BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Twenty-three people have been reported killed so far in Colombia’s Arauca province amid fighting between illegal armed groups, Defense Minister Diego Molano told a news conference late on Monday.
Fighting broke out over the weekend in Arauca – which sits on the border with Venezuela – as members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) fought with dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who reject a 2016 peace deal.
The groups were fighting over control of illegal economies such as drug trafficking, Colombia’s army said in a statement late on Sunday. The violence also displaced 12 families, Colombia’s human rights ombudsman said.
The violence harks back to the mid 2000s, when the FARC and ELN fought each other in Arauca and the neighboring Venezue-lan state of Apure.
By the time fighting ceased in 2010, more than 58,000 people had been displaced in the province and at least 868 civilians had been killed, according to a report from advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW), which cited the government-run Colombian Victims’ Unit.
