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UNHCR Says an Indigenous Community in Colombia Fears Attacks
Indigenous people in the settlement of Las Playas in the northwestern Uraba region of Colombia are extremely frightened by attacks and are considering fleeing to a nearby town.
That, according to a team of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees working in the area. UNHCR Spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis says local witnesses described what happened.
"A group of armed men entered the settlement on the evening of 6 December and asked for the three indigenous leaders by name. They then took them to a riverbank and brutally murdered them with machetes. Before leaving the village, the armed men threatened that they would come back."
Ms. Pagonis says the community had not received any specific threats from any armed group before. UNHCR says fear is also spreading to other indigenous communities in the region following the murder of three indigenous leaders by unidentified armed men last Monday.
