Colombia: Departmental Briefing, Nariño, from January to December 2023

KEY MESSAGES

• Humanitarian emergencies due to mass displacement in Nariño have progressively increased over the past three years: 10,456 people were displaced in 2020, 28,932 in 2021, and 34,800 in 2022, with a slight decrease to 31,036 in 2023. This disproportionately impacts Afro-descendant and indigenous Awá and Eperara Siapidara communities in municipalities such as Ricaurte, Santacruz, Samaniego, Magüí, Tumaco, Roberto Payán, and Olaya Herrera, among others. Mass displacements, in several cases, were continuous and long-lasting (weeks and even months), affecting institutional response capacity. Returns without accompaniment and security conditions were observed, generating risks of re-victimization.

• Underreporting of events and victims within the armed conflict framework is prevalent due to the lack of knowledge about assistance routes and fear of possible retaliations by non-state armed groups. Additionally, there is institutional capacity overload in the Piedemonte Costero, Abades, Telembí, Sanquianga, and Pacífico Sur subregions due to constant events of mass displacement and confinement, simultaneous emergencies, sustained threats over time, and the lack of updating and allocation of sufficient economic resources to contingency and prevention plans. Likewise, there is concern about underreporting of events and impacts related to gender-based violence (GBV), accidents with antipersonnel mines, and recruitment, use, and utilization of children and adolescents, among others. Strengthening the self-governments of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in protection and self-protection strategies is required.

• The Ombudsman's Office has issued 15 Early Warnings (EW) between 2020 and 2023 regarding the risks faced by the population in Nariño. In 2023, two Imminence Alerts were issued for the municipalities of La Llanada, Los Andes, Linares, Santacruz, and Samaniego, warning of risks of displacement, confinement, individual and collective threats, mobility restrictions, illegal checkpoints, selective homicides, gender-based violence, accidents with landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), and recruitment, use, and utilization of minors in the presence and incursion of non-state armed groups. The humanitarian situation in Nariño tends to worsen due to structural and circumstantial factors. Emergencies arise due to climatic variability, recurrent mass displacements, and confinements, coupled with crises in coca marketing and food security, difficult-to-access territories due to lack of communication routes, and high levels of unmet basic needs, causing communities to face challenges accessing productive processes, food, safe water, education, health, and protection.