ReliefWeb

HIGHLIGHTS

• UARIV makes a balance of 2015 and gives priorities for 2016

• Humanitarian year in review

• El Niño impacts Colombia

• UNGRD focuses on prevention for successful risk management

2016: strengthening local authorities for prevention and assistance to humanitarian emergencies

By Paula Gaviria, Director of the Victim’s Unit, Unidad para la Atención y Reparación Integral a Víctimas (UARIV)

In 2015, the Unidad para la Atención y Reparación Integral a Víctimas (UARIV), through its Sub-directorate for Prevention and Assistance to Emergencies verified the occurrence of 628 humanitarian emergencies in 251 municipalities of Colombia. Of these, 54 generated mass displacements impacting more than 3,700 families, who were assisted in the emergency phase (Atención Humanitaria Inmediata) by state entities integrating Transitional Justice Committees, as well as humanitarian organizations in the departments of Cauca, Chocó, Antioquia, Norte de Santander, Nariño, Putumayo, Meta, Arauca and Magdalena.

In 2015, there were 628 emergencies resulting from armed actions. These figures represent a drop as compared to 2014, when there were 798 such emergencies. Nevertheless, the number of mass displacement events remained stable, with changes in the geographic impact and in the actors responsible of displacement (see Illustration 1).

While in 2014 the FARC-EP were responsible of 69 per cent of mass displacements, the ELN of 11 per cent and the BACRIM1 of 16 per cent, in 2015 the FARC-EP participated in 37 per cent of mass displacements, the ELN in 31 per cent, and the BACRIM in 13 per cent.

The EPL guerrilla, who was not registered as an actor related to mass displacement in 2014, participated in four mass displacement events in 2015. Cauca, Chocó and Nariño were the departments most affected by mass displacement both in 2014 and 2015, while Antioquia, Arauca, Magdalena, Meta and Norte de Santander registered an increase in mass displacement events in 2015; finally, Valle del Cauca, Córdoba, Guaviare and Guajira showed a decrease in the number of mass displacement events in 2015.