A growing number of Colombians face a worsening humanitarian situation as the state neglects remote communities, Red Cross says
BOGOTA (AlertNet) – A growing number of Colombians face a worsening humanitarian situation due to escalating fighting by armed groups and a lack of state services in some parts of the Andean nation, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.
For nearly 50 years, Colombia's main left-wing guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has waged a war against government troops in a bid to take power. This, together with drug-fuelled violence, means civilians often get caught up in armed conflict.
"We are concerned about the deteriorating situation in some areas, in many cases because fighting and military operations have intensified, and especially because of the lack of access to basic services like health, education, water and transport in remote communities," Jordi Raich, head of the ICRC in Colombia, told reporters in Bogota at Wednesday's launch of the organisation’s 2011 annual report.
Communities living in Colombia’s remote southern provinces, along the Pacific coast, and near the Venezuelan border are among the hardest hit, the ICRC says. Here, the rebels and other armed groups have more sway because the state’s presence is weak and sporadic, making it harder for people to access state services and for doctors to visit these areas.
“The humanitarian needs there are further intensified by the neglect, indifference and weak presence of state social institutions,” the ICRC said in its Colombia report.
THREATS TO WOMEN
Last year, the ICRC recorded more than 760 alleged human rights violations in Colombia, including murder and sexual violence against women.
“Victims of sexual violence face enormous difficulty in accessing medical and psychological help in some areas of Colombia” Raich said. “Women face threats if they denounce the crime, which sometimes leads to forced displacement.”
With nearly four million internal refugees, Colombia has one of the highest displaced populations in the world.
The ICRC said increasing numbers of Colombians are being forced from their homes to escape violence, but did not estimate how many. Last year, the agency helped around 11,000 displaced families.
Government crop-spraying campaigns to eradicate coca – the raw ingredient for cocaine – are not only destroying the coca shrub, but also in some cases subsistence crops like maize, which means less food for farming families, the ICRC said.
“Imprecision during crop spraying sometimes means legal crops are fumigated as well as illegal crops,” Raich said.
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