Four young children have been shot dead by unknown individuals in northwestern Colombia, in the second massacre in four days in the region and the 77th since the beginning of the year in the country.
The massacre took place on Tuesday night in the central square of the village of San Rafael in the county of Antioch.
“Three people were killed on the spot and a fourth, seriously injured, died at the hospital a short time later,” the mayor of the community, Libardo Siro, told local media.
The victims were three young people under the age of 25 and a teenager 16 years old, a police officer in the area confirmed to the French Agency, explaining that they were just talking in the square when they were killed.
Second slaughter within 4 days
This is the second massacre – the simultaneous killing of at least three people, according to the UN definition – in four days in the prefecture of Antioch.
On Sunday, five people, including three Venezuelans, were killed in the town of Betania.
On October 8, another incident made headlines in Colombia: a Venezuelan teenager and a child accused of stealing from a retail store were executed shortly afterwards by unknown individuals in a community in the northeastern part of the country. Videos of their capture and then showing their bloodied corpses were spread on social networking sites.
Violence has escalated in the country
According to the independent INDEPAZ Institute, which systematically monitors the armed conflict in Colombia, of the 77 massacres with at least 279 victims committed this year, 13 were recorded in Antioch County.
Colombia, where a peace deal was signed in 2016 between the government and the country’s largest former rebel group, has recently faced a frightening escalation of violence in several areas where the state is virtually absent and where armed organizations and gangs are operating. mainly in drug trafficking.
