United Nations announces huge increase in forced displacement in 2018

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has found that more than 30,000 people were forcibly displaced from their homes due to violence between January and November 2018.

One of the major factors behind the increase is the struggle between armed groups to occupy territories vacated by the FARC’s withdrawal following the 2016 peace agreement. New conflicts have emerged as competing groups seek to fill the resulting power vacuum, with the state failing to secure the regions.

According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, there was a 106 per cent increase in people forcibly displaced from their homes in 2018 compared with the previous year. The worst-affected regions are Catatumbo in northeast Colombia, Bajo Cauca in Antioquia and the Pacific departments of Chocó and Nariño, where around 95 per cent of all cases have occurred.