Livelihood (fishing, agriculture) and inadequate governmental response, has put Worsening the humanitarian crisis, lack of access to their usual sources of The humanitarian needs of those confined is As well as, reports of dissidents of the FARC and drug trafficking mafias operating in Chocó. Recently, there have been reports of collusion between the AGC and the security forces. Local communities, CSO and the Catholic Church all report the AGC moving freely in large numbers, well-armed in this highly militarised region of Chocó where the Colombian Joint Military Forces – “Titan” is deployed.
Many are fleeing their homes, whereas others, have been forcibly confined and used as human shields. This struggle is ongoing and is resulting in Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities being caught in the middle. Armed disputes arose mainly between the Ejército Popular de Liberación (ELN, leftist guerrilla group), and the rightist neo-paramilitary group Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC), seeking to control territory, illicit economies (mainly drugs and mining) and strategic corridors for smuggling persons, drugs and weapons. In violations and abuses of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and HumanįARC demobilisation left a power vacuum in areas they controlled in Chocó. The internal armed conflict, territorial control by legal and illegal armedĪctors, the impact of extractive activities and coca cultivation have resulted
Highest rates of multidimensional poverty in Colombia. The majority of the Chocó inhabitants are indigenousĪnd afro-Colombian Peoples, who suffer from the department having one of the It is also classified in Colombian law as a forestall reserve. Biogeographic Chocó is one of the global biodiversity hotspots and home to approximately 56% of Colombian bird species and 11% of all known bird species in the world. Additionally, communities report that the neo-paramilitary groups such as the AGC move freely in Chocó, even in large groups of 100 to 200, camouflaged and well-armed.Ĭhocó, Colombia is situated between the Darién Gap on the border with Panama and the departments of Antioquia and Valle de Cauca. This militarisation is happening in Chocó alongside a lack of response from State civilian institutions to the humanitarian crisis in Chocó, which, combined with the activities of the illegal armed groups, is generating terror. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia in its annual report point out that, ‘in many regions of Colombia, the presence of the State is limited to the military forces, requiring them to participate in tasks outside their responsibility’. These have been denounced by ethnic territorial organisations, the Catholic Church, the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office and the UN agencies amongst others with a lack of effective response from the Colombian Government. This has resulted in displacements, intimidation, kidnappings, confinement of communities, sexual and gender-based violence, the recruitment of children, assassinations of leaders and threats. They impose their regulations on communities with curfews, forcing them to attend meetings and pressurising them to cultivate of illicit crops. They are financed through legal and Illegal economies, as well as, extortion.
The presence of illegal armed groups including the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) and the ELN continues. ABColombia along with other International organisations and intergovernmental agencies in Colombia express grave concerns regarding the violations and abuses of human rights of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in Chocó and International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
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