BOGOTA, Colombia — More than 500 Colombian military personnel flooded into the southwestern municipality of Silvia on Friday after deadly fighting erupted between two Indigenous communities over disputed land, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 100 others.
Military officials announced on social media that over 500 troops, supported by air units, would be sent to the region to secure the communities and stop further violence from breaking out.
Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez told reporters Friday that preliminary casualty figures show at least seven fatalities and more than 110 wounded — the majority suffering gunshot wounds. “This figure could rise,” he warned.
The violent confrontation occurred in a rural section of the Cauca department, where the Misak and Nasa Indigenous communities are fighting over the same piece of land that both groups say belongs to them.
According to a statement from Colombia’s government-run National Land Agency, officials have been working since April when conflicts first began to help resolve the dispute through mediation meetings and technical committees aimed at “providing clarity regarding the territorial boundaries of the two groups.” The agency called on both communities to continue participating in negotiations.
On Thursday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia released a statement calling for peace between the communities and demanding that government officials investigate and bring charges against those who caused the deaths and injuries.
Criminal armed organizations operate throughout the area, including breakaway groups from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, that refused to accept the historic 2016 peace deal with the government.
