Global Humanitarian Assistance: Colombia - Resources for Humanitarian Response and Poverty Reduction

Colombia has the highest recorded number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world, with 3.9 million people – 8.5% of the population – displaced since 1996, and between 150,000 and 200,000 continuing to be displaced each year.1
The vast majority of Colombia’s IDPs have been forced from their homes as a result of the complex ongoing conflict between leftist guerrilla groups and the Colombian armed forces – which began in the mid-1960s – also involving right-wing paramilitary groups that became active in the 1990s. Since the official demobilisation of the paramilitaries in 2006, any groups still operating with links to former paramilitary groups have been labelled by the Government, “Post-Demobilisation Armed Groups” (PDGA). A process for negotiating peace was formally announced in October 2012, when President Santos announced a framework agreement for peace negotiations with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), the largest and most prominent of Colombia’s guerrilla groups. Negotiation talks between the two sides have since been taking place in Cuba.