BOGOTA: Colombia’s human rights ombudswoman said Saturday that seven children were killed in a controversial airstrike against a rebel group in the country’s south earlier this week, as the administration of President Gustavo Petro steps up efforts to regain control of rural areas in Guaviare province.
In a statement, ombudswoman Iris Marin said the minors killed in the strike against the FARC-EMC rebel group had been forcibly recruited and were being used as “human shields.”
Marin called on the Colombian government and rebel groups in the country to respect international humanitarian law. The public defender had initially said that six minors were killed in the strike, but updated the death toll following a statement from Colombia’s Forensic Medicine institute.
“No child or teenager who has been recruited should be affected by military operations,” Marin said. “The armed forces must adopt precautions to protect children who have been forced to take part in hostilities.”
Earlier this week, Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez blamed criminal groups for putting children in danger and told journalists that in his view, “whoever gets involved in hostilities loses protection, without distinction.”
The deaths of children in military strikes is a sensitive topic in Colombia, where a former defense minister resigned in 2019, after it was found that the government covered up t he deaths of eight children during an airstrike in the province of Caqueta.
According to Colombia’s military, at least 19 fighters were killed in the strike that took place on Tuesday in Guaviare, including the six minors.
Petro said Saturday that he had decided to order the airstrike because the column of rebel fighters was advancing toward a position from where they could ambush a smaller group of Colombian troops.
“The death of any person is regrettable, and especially that of minors,” Petro wrote on X. “I took a risk to save the lives” of soldiers.
Petro suspended airstrikes against criminal groups shortly after he came into office three years ago, in order to decrease the possibilities of killing minors. The left wing leader had accused previous governments of committing “war crimes” when it was found that minors died in airstrikes against rebel groups.
But airstrikes against Colombian rebels resumed last year, as the Petro administration struggles to contain the expansion of groups that are fighting to take over territory abandoned by the FARC, the guerrilla group that made peace with the Colombian government in 2016.
Petro is an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump’s strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean, which he has described as “extrajudicial executions.”
On Friday he argued that his government’s airstrikes against rebels groups are different.
“Those who are falling in the bombardments of Colombian forces have machine guns, explosives, and have declared themselves members of an armed group,” Petro wrote on X. “They are trying to eliminate government forces and civilians with their lethal weapons.”
Colombian officials say 7 children were killed in an airstrike against a rebel group this week
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Colombian officials say 7 children were killed in an airstrike against a rebel group this week
- Marin said the minors killed in the strike against the FARC-EMC rebel group had been forcibly recruited and were being used as “human shields”
- “No child or teenager who has been recruited should be affected by military operations”
Treason trial of South Sudan’s suspended VP is further eroding peace deal, UN experts say
- The experts said forces from both sides are continuing to confront each other across much of the country
- “Years of neglect have fragmented government and opposition forces alike,” the experts said
UNITED NATIONS: The treason trial of South Sudan’s suspended vice president is further eroding a 2018 peace agreement he signed with President Salva Kiir, UN experts warned in a new report.
As Riek Machar’s trial is taking place in the capital, Juba, the experts said forces from both sides are continuing to confront each other across much of the country and there is a threat of renewed major conflict.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the UN Security Council last month that the crisis in South Sudan is escalating, “a breaking point” has become visible, and time is running “dangerously short” to bring the peace process back on track.
There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict, but the country slid into a civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions, when forces loyal to Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled those loyal to Machar, an ethnic Nuer.
More than 400,000 people were killed in the war, which ended with the 2018 peace agreement that brought Kiir and Machar together in a government of national unity. But implementation has been slow, and a long-delayed presidential election is now scheduled for December 2026.
The panel of UN experts stressed in a report this week that the political and security landscape in South Sudan looks very different today than it did in 2018 and that “the conflict that now threatens looks much different to those that came before.”
“Years of neglect have fragmented government and opposition forces alike,” the experts said, “resulting in a patchwork of uniformed soldiers, defectors and armed community defense groups that are increasingly preoccupied by local struggles and often unenthused by the prospect of a national confrontation. ”
With limited supplies and low morale, South Sudan’s military has relied increasingly on aerial bombings that are “relatively indiscriminate” to disrupt the opposition, the experts said.
In a major escalation of tensions in March, a Nuer militia seized an army garrison. Kiir’s government responded, charging Machar and seven other opposition figures with treason, murder, terrorism and other crimes.
The UN experts said Kiir and his allies insist that, despite having dismissed Machar, implementation of the peace agreement is unaffected, pointing to a faction of the opposition led by Stephen Par Kuol that is still engaged in the peace process.
Those who refused to join Kuol and sided with Machar’s former deputy, Natheniel Oyet, “have largely been removed from their positions, forcing many to flee the country,” the experts said in the report.
The African Union, regional countries and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, have all called for Machar’s release and stressed their strong support for implementation of the 2018 agreement, the panel said.
According to the latest international assessment, 7.7 million people — 57 percent of the population — face “crisis” levels of food insecurity, with pockets of famine in some communities most affected by renewed fighting, the panel said.
