Hundreds of thousands uprooted as Colombia hunts rebel chiefs

A police officer surveys the area after an attack on a nearby police station, blamed on FARC, in Piendamo, Cauca province, November 6, 2011. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga

By Anastasia Moloney

When the leader of Colombia’s largest FARC rebel group, Alfonso Cano, was killed in a gun battle this month, his death was hailed by the government as the biggest blow to the guerrilla movement in its 47-year history.

The killing of FARC’s top commander in a stealth air raid on a rebel jungle camp in the verdant mountains of Colombia’s south-western province of Cauca made world headlines.

But far less attention was given to the hundreds of thousands of Colombians who have been forced to flee their homes to escape almost daily skirmishes between the rebels and Colombia’s security forces as they hunt down FARC commanders.

When Cano took over the guerrilla group’s leadership following the death of veteran leader Manuel Marulanda from natural causes in 2008, he became the number one target for Colombia’s armed forces.

The manhunt, involving thousands of government troops, led to civilians being caught in the crossfire in rural areas where Cano was hiding.

Recently, the province of Cauca where Cano spent his last days, has become the epicentre of FARC activity. Here the rebels have stepped up their attacks in response to an intensified government military offensive.

Cauca province has become a focal point of displacement in Colombia, as thousands of families living here have been forced to flee their homes in recent years to escape the violence.

“The situation is critical in the Cauca department, due to ongoing fighting and frequent attacks against state armed forces amid civilians,” states the latest report from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Colombia.

With up to an estimated four million internal refugees, Colombia is home to one of the world's largest displaced populations. 

Last year, around 280,000 Colombians were uprooted, according to the country’s leading non-governmental organisation monitoring displacement, CODHES. 

Mass displacement, defined by CODHES as 50 or more people being driven from their homes at any one time, is also on the rise.

In the first half of the year, there were 59 mass displacements across Colombia, involving at least 17,500 people, according to OCHA.

Fighting between security forces and the rebels is the leading cause of mass displacement, it says.

On one occasion this year, up to 330 people were uprooted from one remote village in Cauca province, OCHA reports.

The government needs to do more to protect communities caught in the crossfire, it says.

“Due to the increasing risk facing civilians (in Cauca), special protection measures are needed,” the report adds.

CIVILIANS TARGETTED

Rebel attacks on civilians in Cauca province have also increased in recent months, with 35 attacks reported since the beginning of this year, according to OCHA.

In July, FARC attacked the town of Corinto setting off a car bomb and detonating a bus packed with explosives, which killed three people.

Despite Cano’s death, there seems to be no let up in rebel activity in Cauca.

Last week, six civilians and three police were injured in another bomb explosion in Corinto, which the Colombian authorities have blamed on the rebels.

This week, in a statement published on the Bolivarian Press Agency website, FARC named Timoleon Jimenez, a hardliner known as Timochenko, as their new leader while reiterating they would fight on.

The Colombian authorities believe he is hiding along the northeastern border with Venezuela.

This could intensify the conflict in the border provinces as the security forces start a manhunt for Timochenko, placing communities living there at risk of displacement.

Many analysts say the rebels are likely to step up their hit and run attacks as a show of strength.

While the conflict shows no signs of abating, hundreds of thousands more Colombians risk being driven from their homes.