Numbers displaced by Colombia violence doubled in 2025: Red Cross

BOGOTA: The number of people displaced by conflict in Colombia doubled year-on-year in 2025 as violence by armed groups rose to its highest level in a decade, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday.

At least 322,688 people were displaced in 2025 as clashes between rival guerrilla factions intensified in populated areas, the ICRC said, a 100-percent increase over 2024 when 158,925 people were reported displaced.

A plethora of armed groups are vying to fill the vacuum left by the disarmament of the Marxist guerrilla army FARC, which ended its half-century of war with the Colombian state in 2016.

Their battle for control of the cocaine trade, illegal gold mines and extortion rackets has intensified in recent years, even as left-wing president Gustavo Petro attempted to engage them in peace talks.

The worst-affected area last year was Norte de Santander department on the northeastern border with Venezuela, where clashes between the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's biggest guerrilla group, and dissident FARC members killed over 70 people and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

Across the country, the ICRC noted a 99 percent increase in the number of people confined to their homes by armed groups—a tactic regularly used by the guerrillas to assert control over a territory—and a 34 percent increase in deaths and injuries from attacks with explosive devices such as drones, increasingly used against the security forces.

The ICRC report comes just weeks before presidential elections on May 31, with security as a central issue for voters. The current campaign has been rocked by several major attacks.

Right-wing candidate Miguel Uribe was shot in the head while campaigning in Bogota last year and later died of his injuries. Last week, a 25-year-old journalist was murdered while reporting on clashes between armed groups in northwestern Antioquia department.

And in late April, FARC dissidents claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a highway in southwestern Cauca department which killed 21 people, the deadliest attack on Colombian civilians in over two decades.

The head of the ICRC delegation in Bogota, Olivier Dubois, called the situation a "tragedy" and insisted on the need for dialogue with all parties to the conflict.