More than 66,000 people have fled their homes in Colombia during the first five months of this year due to clashes between rebel groups. The information was reported on Saturday (17 May) by China’s Xinhua News Agency, citing the United Nations humanitarian agency. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the new displacements represent a 28 per cent increase compared with the total number of people made homeless by ongoing violence since 2024. OCHA said, “By the end of last year, more than 7.3 million people had been internally displaced due to violence and conflict, making Colombia the third highest in the world after Sudan and Syria.” OCHA added that the United Nations and its partners provided assistance through an allocation of 3.8 million US dollars from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund announced in February. The aim is to assist more than 56,000 affected people in Catatumbo, where intense fighting took place in 2025. Citing local media, Xinhua reported in January that attacks by National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas and clashes with dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the north-eastern Catatumbo region killed more than 80 people and injured at least 20 others. In late March, Colombia’s military said that a soldier was killed in an explosive attack by FARC dissidents in the south-western department of Cauca. The Ministry of Defence said that an escalation in violence in March left more than 80 people injured. Clashes between the ELN and FARC dissidents are widely seen as a struggle for control of territory. OCHA said that despite a sharp rise in humanitarian needs, funding shortages have severely reduced the operational capacity of humanitarian organisations. Humanitarian partners have been able to meet only 25 per cent of identified needs, leaving thousands of people without assistance. Only 14 per cent of Colombia’s 342 million US dollar humanitarian appeal has been funded.