By Veronica Hernández Téllez, EL COLOMBIANO, November 6, 2025
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
Colombia is passing through one of its most critical moments of forced displacement in the last ten years according to the General Direction for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations of the European Union (ECHO). In 2025, more than seventy thousand people were displaced by force, twice the number of those registered the previous year.
This country continues to be one of the principal locations affected by internal displacement in the world, with more than seven million displaced persons.
The European agency stressed that this problem was particularly evident at the beginning of 2025, with the massive displacement in the region of Catatumbo, in Norte de Santander Department, where eighty thousand people were obliged to abandon their homes because of combat between illegal armed groups.
“The attacks against leaders, the forced disappearances, and the killings are some of the worst violations—together with the recruitment of children by armed groups—and are unfortunately increasing,” warned Cedric Perus, an ECHO spokesman.
Besides that, in 2024 confinement also reached its highest levels recorded in recent years, affecting at least 115,000 people.
This kind of coercion keeps entire communities—with indigenous and AfroColombian people in the majority—from moving freely or having access to food, medicine and means of subsistence.
The Department of Chocó suffers the most from this practice, where 60% of the confinements recorded in 2024 are concentrated. In 2023, 10,640 indigenous people suffered confinement in Chocó, which represents more than half of the population confined in that Department.
“Forced confinement restricts the mobility of the communities, especially of the indigenous and AfroColombian populations; it interferes with their access to essential necessities such as food, medicine, and means of subsistence because of the threats and the armed combat,” ECHO pointed out in its report.
Indigenous women are among the most affected: they face risks of sexual exploitation, abuse and gender violence while the isolated conditions limit their capacity to maintain their cultural roles and feed their families.
The escalation of the armed conflict, powered by the dispute over territories between different illegal armed groups, provoked 69% of the events of massive displacement during the first half of 2025.
Boys, girls, and teenagers represent 34% of the displaced population and they face the greatest risks of forced recruitment, exploitation, and abuse.
It’s important to remember that the European Union, through ECHO, finances and supports humanitarian operations carried out in Colombia to take care of people affected by the armed violence, especially in remote communities.
In Chocó, for example, humanitarian organizations like the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (ACNUR) and other local or international partners furnish first aid and attention to mental health.