Gunmen have shot and killed at least 12 Awa natives, four of them children, in an attack in a southern coastal region of Colombia that is a springboard for cocaine shipments.
The attack on Wednesday near the Ecuador border was carried out by “hooded men wearing military uniforms” at the Gran Rosario reserve, 80km from the Pacific port of Tumaco, National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) president Luis Evelio Andrade said.
Approximately 11,000 members of the Awa indigenous group occupy a strip of land along the border region that is also used by drug traffickers to facilitate cocaine shipments across the Pacific.
“In that zone, guerillas, paramilitaries and the army are active,” said Andrade, whose group represents 1.3 million Colombian native Indians.
The Colombia office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has reported increased attacks by armed groups on indigenous groups, “strongly” condemned the latest killing in a statement.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s government said it “repudiated and condemned” the murders and offered a reward of about US$50,000 for any tips leading to the arrest of the perpetrators and instigators.
The UN attributes most of the 63 murders of native Indians this year to the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Latin America’s oldest and largest rebel group.
The Awa, in turn, say they are being targeted by a campaign of extermination for their decision to remain neutral in the conflict pitting FARC guerillas against Uribe’s conservative government.
Since early this year, about 1,700 Awa have been living in four makeshift shelters in the towns of Altaquer and Ricaurte in Narino state, after leaving their homes following a series of murders by FARC guerillas.
In April, FARC leader Alfonso Cano apologized to the Awa in a public letter, after admitting that rebels killed eight members of the native group for alleged collaboration with the Colombian army.
Narino ombudsman Carlos Maya said violence in the border region had spiked in recent years because of its strategic location, where drug traffickers and armed groups are present, with natives often caught up in the crossfire.
Cocaine trafficking has shifted in recent years toward the Pacific Ocean, which is less secure and guarded than the Caribbean Sea.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including