Clashes between guerrillas and drug traffickers in various parts of Colombia has claimed more than 100 lives in five days and displaced thousands.
The heightened violence caused left-wing President Gustavo Petro to declare "war" on National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas on Monday.
The border with Venezuela, the southern Amazon region and parts of the north have been under attack from organisations vying for control of territory and drug trafficking routes in Colombia, the world's leading cocaine producer.
The death toll rose on Monday after clashes between rival splinter groups of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group left at least 20 people dead in the Amazonian department of Guaviare (south). "There are 20 dead and the bodies have been taken to the morgue in Villavicencio," a nearby town, a Ministry of Defence official told French news agency AFP.
The fighting broke out between supporters of ‘Calarca’, leader of a FARC splinter group negotiating peace with the Colombian government, and those of ‘Ivan Mordisco’, who refuses to negotiate.
Since Thursday, the country has been faced with a bloody attack by ELN guerrillas against FARC dissidents and the civilian population in the northeastern region of Catatumbo, on the border with Venezuela. The toll: at least 80 dead and some 11,000 displaced.
With more than 50,000 hectares of coca crops, the fuel of the long armed conflict, Catatumbo is a symbol of the internal war that has claimed more than 9.5 million victims over six decades.
In the northern department of Bolivar, clashes between the ELN and the Clan del Golfo cartel left nine people dead, according to the authorities.
This violence undermines the policy pursued by the government of Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first left-wing president and a former guerrilla, who pledged on coming to power in 2022 to resolve the armed conflict through dialogue, and has since been negotiating with several of the country's armed organisations.
He has not reached any concrete agreements with the guerrillas, drug traffickers or far-right paramilitary groups.
In 2016, a historic peace agreement led to the disarmament of FARC, but dissident groups have since reorganised with new recruits.
On Friday, President Gustavo Petro decided to suspend peace negotiations with the ELN, which he accused of committing "war crimes."
On Monday, he said on social network X, that the ELN had "gone the way of Pablo Escobar." a reference to the famous Colombian drug trafficker who died in 1993. The ELN "has chosen the path of war and it will have war," he said.
