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News > Colombia

Child Victims of Colombia’s Armed Conflict Increased in 2018

  • Coalico's report to the JEP coincides with the International Day of Red Hands, a protocol that prohibits the participation of minors in armed conflicts.

    Coalico's report to the JEP coincides with the International Day of Red Hands, a protocol that prohibits the participation of minors in armed conflicts. | Photo: Reuters

Published 13 February 2019
Opinion

A 2013 study found that children were suffering psychologically, while others, wounded by landmines, have had limbs amputated or are blind.

During 2018, the armed conflict in Colombia has affected 213 children and young people, according to a report delivered Tuesday by an NGO to the Special Justice for Peace (JEP).

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According to the analysis, between January and December 2018 a total of 331 armed actions were registered in the South American country.

Of the more than 300 cases, 117 corresponded to clashes and other military actions that did not directly involve children and adolescents, while 213 events involved direct impacts on the youth population.

According to the NGO Coalition Against the Involvement of Children and Youth in the Armed Conflict in Colombia (COALICO), the figures "account for an increase in the number of children affected during 2018 compared to 2017, when a total of 166 events of direct impact against this population were recorded."

The report details that the Colombian departments with the highest number of cases were in Norte de Santander (43), Choco (36), Antioquia (30), Nariño (19) and Valle del Cauca (14).

The delivery of Coalico's report to the JEP coincides with International Day of Red Hands, which commemorates the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child protocol that prohibits the participation of minors in armed conflicts.

According to a 2017 report by the Center for Historical Memory, 16,879 minors under 18 years of age were victims of recruitment between 1960 and 2016 by actors who participated in the Colombian armed conflict.

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