Some 5,000 people affected by fighting in Colombia's southwest -gov't
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Combat between three Colombian armed groups in the country's southwest has forced some 5,000 people either to flee or take refuge from the fighting, the government's high peace commission said on Tuesday.
The Awa Indigenous group in particular has been severely affected by the fighting between two groups of FARC dissidents - Segunda Marquetalia and Estado Mayor Central - and rebel group the National Liberation Army (ELN), which began on May 28 in a rural area of Narino province.
"The confrontation has provoked forced displacement and the confinement of close to 5,000 people, most of them Indigenous, who have been obliged to take refuge from the crossfire," the commission said in a statement.
One man from the Magui Indigenous reserve was killed by a land mine, the statement added, and peace commissioner Danilo Rueda called for the armed groups to halt hostilities which affect the Awa and other civilians.
The dissident groups were founded by former members of the FARC rebels who reject a 2016 peace deal.
Leftist President Gustavo Petro has pledged to put an end to Colombia's 60-year conflict through peace or surrender deals with armed groups.
Though his government has restarted talks with the ELN and will hold a ceasefire with that group beginning Aug. 3, there are so far no negotiations with FARC dissidents or crime gangs like the Clan del Golfo.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Chris Reese)
