BOGOTA, Colombia — The impact of armed conflict on civilians in Colombia over the past year has been the worst in a decade as the country’s security situation deteriorates, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday in an annual report.
The humanitarian group said the number of people displaced as criminal gangs and rebels fight the Colombian state and each other doubled in 2025, reaching 235,000 people. Meanwhile, the number of people who had to endure lockdowns imposed by rebel groups in small towns and villages increased by 99% last year.
For decades rebel groups and drug traffickers have been fighting the Colombian government for control of rural areas, including corridors linked to the cocaine trade.
A 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and the nation’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, helped to reduce rural violence. But the security situation has since deteriorated in many parts of the country, as smaller groups try to control areas that were once dominated by the FARC rebels, where they tax local business and intimidate civilians who stand in their way.
“The humanitarian situation in 2025, is the result of a progressive deterioration that the ICRC has warned about since 2018,” said Olivier Dubois, the ICRC’s chief of mission in Colombia.
For the past four years, the administration of President Gustavo Petro has tried to reduce violence in rural Colombia by staging peace talks with the nation’s remaining rebel groups and agreeing to ceasefires with some of them.
But critics say that the rebel groups have used these ceasefires to regroup, rearm and strengthen their grip over communities, where children are being increasingly recruited into the ranks of criminal groups.
Political violence has also worsened in Colombia, where a presidential candidate was shot in the head last year during a rally in the capital, Bogota, and later died from his injuries. Authorities have blamed one of the nation’s rebel groups for the attack.
In February, the United Nations Human Rights office in Colombia said that the security situation in the country was “backsliding” with murders of human rights defenders increasing by 9% last year.
The Red Cross also noted Tuesday that in 2025 there were 965 people killed or injured by explosive devices, including landmines and drones, 33% more cases than the previous year.
The Red Cross urged the parties in Colombia’s armed conflict to respect the rights of civilians, and protect those who no longer wish to take parts in hostilities.
“Respect for international humanitarian law is not optional,” the humanitarian group said.
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