Dozens of former FARC fighters abandon 'reincorporation' village in Colombia after death threats

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Dozens of former guerrilla fighters and their families were forced to abandon their village in southern Colombia on Tuesday, after receiving death threats by a rebel group that is still fighting the government, authorities said.

The displaced former fighters were members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the guerrilla group that signed a peace deal with Colombia’s government in 2016.

For the past seven years, the former fighters had been living in Miravalle, a village built for them by Colombia’s government, where they worked on farming projects, raised chickens and even organized whitewater rafting trips for tourists.

But in June, the Iván Díaz front, a rebel group that is vying for control of farmland and drug trafficking routes in Colombia’s Caqueta province, accused the residents of Miravalle of aiding another rebel group in the area, and gave them 40 days to leave.

On Tuesday more than 80 people, including former fighters, their children and their spouses, left the Miravalle area for another village — also inhabited by former FARC fighters — 200 km (124 miles) to the south. They carried their animals and their belongings in a caravan that was organized by Colombia’s government.

“We are leaving this place, but we'll continue to focus on building peace,” Carlos Zamudio, a former FARC fighter who had been living in Miravalle for the past seven years, said in a video published by the ARN, a Colombian government agency that helps former fighters to adapt to civilian life.

Following the 2016 peace deal, in which more than 14,000 FARC fighters laid down their weapons, the Colombian government created 24 villages in rural areas, where the former fighters could launch businesses and rebuild their lives.

These villages are known as Temporary Spaces for Capacity Building and Reincorporation, and were initially home to a majority of former FARC fighters.

But the population of these villages, also known by their Spanish acronym of ETCR, has dwindled significantly due to security problems, and also because many former fighters have struggled to find work there.

Five ETCRs, including Miravalle, have been completely abandoned as former fighters face threats from groups that are still armed, and are vying for control of the territory around these villages.

The Colombian government is holding peace talks with many of the nation’s remaining rebel groups, but ensuring the security of former FARC fighters continues to be a challenge.

A United Nations report published in April said that 416 former FARC fighters had been murdered since the peace deal was signed in 2016.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

FILE - Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, front left, and the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, Rodrigo Londono, known by the alias Timochenko, shake hands after signing the peace agreement between the government and the FARC to end over 50 years of conflict, in Cartagena, Colombia, Sept. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — President Bassirou Diomaye Faye of Senegal promised severe sanctions against people smugglers during his visit on Wednesday to the town of Mbour, the departure point of a boat that capsized on Sunday, killing at least 37 people.

“We will relentlessly track down and punish with the greatest severity the actors who organize these convoys of death,” Faye said.

Mbour, a coastal city in Senegal nearly 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital Dakar, is one of many places from which young Senegalese people embark on a treacherous journey to Europe, trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean in pirogues, artisanal fishing boats.

One of these boats heading to Europe left Mbour on Sunday afternoon before capsizing a few miles (kilometers) off the coast.

There were 89 people on board, Faye said, and at least 37 died. Only three survivors have been found so far.

“Your life is of inestimable value," Faye told Mbour's residents on Wednesday. “You have a central role to play in the future of our country. We are determined to offer you real and dignified opportunities, here, at home, so that this sea never again becomes a cemetery for our children.”

The French Navy is continuing to search for other bodies, and the captain and owner of the pirogue was arrested after he turned himself in on Monday.

In recent years, the number of migrants leaving West Africa through Senegal has surged with many fleeing conflict, poverty and a lack of jobs. Most head to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa, which is used as a stepping stone to continental Europe.

Last month, the Senegalese army said it had arrested 453 migrants and “members of smuggling networks” as part of a 12-day operation patrolling the coastline. More than half of those arrested were Senegalese nationals, the army said.

In July, a boat carrying 300 migrants, mostly from Gambia and Senegal, capsized off Mauritania. More than a dozen died and at least 150 others went missing.

The Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world. While there is no accurate death toll because of the lack of information on departures from West Africa, the Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders estimates the victims are in the thousands this year alone.

Migrant vessels that get lost or run into problems often vanish in the Atlantic, with some drifting across the ocean for months until they are found in the Caribbean and Latin America carrying only human remains.

After migrant boat tragedy, Senegal's president vows sanctions against people smugglers

FILE - Children play on fishing boats known as "pirogues" in Dakar, Senegal, June 24, 2023. Large pirogues are used in migrant crossings from Senegal to Spain. (AP Photo/Zane Irwin, File)

After migrant boat tragedy, Senegal's president vows sanctions against people smugglers