Red Cross unearthed the bodies of father and son in Dabeiba, Antioquia

On 14 April, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced the recovery of the skeletal remains of two victims of the armed conflict, who were killed in 2006 by illegal armed groups in the municipalities of Dabeiba and Mutatá.

The international organization sent a group of forensic experts, who traveled for more than seven hours by car and mule in the rural area of the municipality in order to carry out the operation to find the bodies of a minor and a man.

The investigation determined that the bodies are of a boy and his father, who were killed by paramilitaries who had hit the region.

Through its Twitter account, the ICRC broke the news of this process:

This municipality in Antioquia's Urabá was one of the most affected during the armed conflict in Colombia. According to figures from the Single Registry of Victims, 324 cases of enforced disappearance have been documented in this area of the country. However, organizations in the region have reported that the whereabouts of more than 1,000 people are unknown to date.

The National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movice) claims that several of these victims were killed and buried as NN in one of the six cemeteries that are located in the municipality.

Similarly, the Movice noted the complicity of the security forces in acts of enforced disappearance in the region. This is also recognized by victims such as those grouped in the humanitarian zone of La Balsita, who since 2005 publicly denounced the forced disappearances committed by paramilitaries, with the support of battalions attached to the 4th and 17th brigades of the National Army.

It should be noted that since August 15, 2019, Movice requested the JEP to extend the request for precautionary measures, to include the protection of bodies of persons reported missing, over the six cemeteries located in the municipality of Dabeiba.

According to the 2021 Red Cross report, the scourge of disappearance is still present in the country, since in the last year 168 cases were reported of people who lost any trace or contact, of which 79% were concentrated in the departments of Norte de Santander, Nariño, Cauca, Arauca, Valle del Cauca and Antioquia.

The international organization also stressed in its annual report that the challenges to the search for missing persons are multiple and complex. “Therefore, it is essential that there be political will to prioritize attention to the problem and respond to the needs of family members. Indifference cannot continue to be the response of a society to a phenomenon that has left thousands of victims and that continues to be present in the country.”

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