GENEVA, Switzerland, March 30 (UPI) -- The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday more than 1,200 Colombians recently fled their ancestral homelands near the Panamanian border because of heavy fighting.
The Geneva-based U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the indigenous communities feared fighting between left wing and right wing forces in their homeland.
A UNHCR team went to the western Choco region last weekend and confirmed that 556 people from the indigenous Embera communities had fled their areas along the Opogado and Napipi rivers, taking refuge in Boca de Opogado and Puerto Antioquia.
Another 675 people from the indigenous communities of Union Cuiti and Hoja Blanca sought safety in Loma de Bojaya from clashes between Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, popularly known as the FARC left-wing guerrillas, and United Self-Defense Forces right-wing paramilitaries, UNHCR said.
Since February, fighting between FARC and AUC has intensified in the area of western Colombia, the refugee agency said. The escalating conflict has caused the mostly indigenous and Afro-Colombian population to repeatedly flee along tributaries of the Atrato River.
