Former FARC guerrillas march in Colombia to demand end to killings

Reuters | Bogota

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Hundreds of demobilized former members of the FARC rebel group marched in Colombia’s capital Bogota on Sunday to demand more security, implementation of a 2016 peace deal, and an end to the killings of former combatants.

Waving both white and Colombian flags, former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) arrived in Bogota as part of the ‘pilgrimage for life and peace.’

The killings of 236 former members of the demobilized FARC since the signing of the 2016 peace deal has been a major hurdle for implementation of the agreement that ended the group’s role in more than five decades of conflict which has left 260,000 dead and millions displaced.

The government of President Ivan Duque says it is committed to the peace deal, blaming FARC dissidents who rejected the 2016 agreement, as well as other illegal armed groups involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining, of killing former FARC guerrilla members