At least 39 people have been killed in violent attacks by leftist guerrillas near Colombia’s troubled border with Venezuela.
Authorities said the government had been forced to suspend high-level peace talks with the group after the guerrilla attacks, according to a foreign news agency report.
President Gustavo Petro suspended already troubled peace talks with the National Liberation Army, accusing it of war crimes amid a fresh wave of unrest.
In two separate incidents, National Liberation Army fighters targeted a rival leftist group and a powerful paramilitary criminal gang, dashing hopes that the group would surrender voluntarily.
At least 30 people were killed and 20 wounded when National Liberation Army fighters targeted dissident members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in several villages and farms, according to the North Ascension Department in northeastern Colombia.
Nine people were killed in the nearby department of Bolivar, in the northern state of Asuncion, officials said, as gunmen went door-to-door searching for people linked to rival gangs.
The department’s governor said the violence began on Thursday and was sparked by a territorial dispute over the cocaine trade.
Armed groups have been fighting for decades for control of the lucrative coca plantations, which are located along the Colombia-Venezuela border and fuel cocaine use worldwide.