Despite Colombia’s 2016 landmark peace agreement, armed groups that did not adhere to the accord continue to maintain a presence in rural areas and impose their own rules, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned on Friday. The humanitarian organization said the growing number of fighters and armed activities within these groups are isolating the civilian population and cutting them off from essential state services and humanitarian assistance.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 1.3 million people have been affected by such restrictions between January and September of this year, primarily in the departments of Cauca, Chocó, and Norte de Santander.
Nine years after the peace agreement was signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's humanitarian situation is still characterized by massive internal displacement, confinement, and insecurity due to armed violence. This violence is fueled by widespread illicit drug production and trafficking, as well as territorial control by armed groups.
On Friday, to mark the ninth anniversary of the peace agreement, the NRC called on all armed actors to respect unrestricted humanitarian access and guarantee freedom of movement for the civilian population.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) also reiterated its call for the Colombian state to make greater efforts to protect people in territories where armed groups are present.
“The persistence of conflict must not, under any circumstance, interrupt access to humanitarian assistance or violate the civilian population’s right to free movement,” said Giovanni Rizzo, NRC’s country director for Colombia.
“This year, in the east of the country, a family of seven was forcibly confined within their territory by armed groups. They had to subsist on only a single bunch of green bananas for nearly four weeks, lacking safe water, and seeing their children’s education suspended.”
Rizzo added that this is just one example of the extreme measures used by armed groups to push an already vulnerable population to the brink of survival.
“Regrettably, this plight recurs in rural communities across the country,” he said.
According to OCHA, nearly 9.3 million Colombians are affected by the presence of non-state armed actors, including the National Liberation Army (ELN), FARC dissident groups, paramilitary successor groups, and drug trafficking gangs. Civilians in different parts of Colombia suffer serious human rights violations at the hands of these armed groups.
NRC said that the rising number of fighters is worrying.
A recent report from the Fundación Ideas para la Paz think tank states that the number of armed group members quadrupled during the implementation period of the peace agreement, rising from over 6,500 in 2017 to more than 25,000 in 2025.
This surge, coupled with these groups' actions, helps explain why the number of displaced people rose from 139,000 in 2017 to over 388,000 in 2024. As of August 2025, more than 115,000 people have been newly displaced, while more than 93,500 have been affected by new confinement.
Colombia has the highest rate of conflict-related displacement in the Americas and remains among the top three countries with the largest number of internally displaced people worldwide, with approximately 7 million. Only Sudan, which currently experiences the world’s largest displacement crisis, and Syria, which has for many years suffered the largest displacement crisis, surpass Colombia.
The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Colombia's Catatumbo region, which began in February, has had the greatest impact of any humanitarian emergency this year, displacing more people than any other crisis in 2025. It is also the largest event of large-scale forced displacement ever documented in Colombia.
More than 60,000 people have been displaced, primarily to the municipalities of Cúcuta, Ocaña, and Tibú, while tens of thousands of others have been confined. However, other situations of internal displacement in the first half of 2025 highlight the worsening humanitarian situation in various parts of Colombia.
More than 1.5 million people have been affected by emergencies in Colombia during the first six months of 2025, which is more than a threefold jump compared to the same period in 2024. Armed conflict is the main driver of this surge, followed by natural disasters and restricted humanitarian access.
In mid-2025, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that continued escalation of the conflict would make this year the worst of the past decade in humanitarian terms. Adding to this severity, humanitarian organizations increasingly struggle to access conflict-affected populations.
In the first six months of 2025, the humanitarian community reported an average of one incident per day that limited the ability to provide timely assistance as a direct consequence of organized armed groups' actions. This figure marked a 90 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024.
“Guaranteeing humanitarian aid and access to the affected civilians is not an option, but the precondition upon which any effort for lasting peace must be built,” Rizzo said.
“It is urgent that the state as a whole guarantees its presence in rural territories to protect rural communities, while all parties to the conflict must immediately commit to respecting the rights of the civilian population.”
Since the beginning of the year, hundreds of thousands of people in Colombia have endured restrictions on their movement and access, as well as confinement or displacement, due to armed conflict and clashes between non-state armed groups and security forces. As a result, communities have limited access to food, health care, and other vital services.
The fragmentation of non-state armed groups and the intensification of their conflicts have severely damaged the social fabric of affected communities, greatly hampering access to human rights and undermining freedoms, security, and autonomy. This has strained the state's protection capacity.
Meanwhile, massive funding cuts are hampering the mobilization of humanitarian aid.
The US$342 million Humanitarian Response Plan to assist the most vulnerable 2 million of the 9 million people in Colombia that require humanitarian assistance has only received 24 percent of its funding, with $82 million received to date, following extreme funding cuts by the United States.
Humanitarian organizations working in Colombia have been severely impacted and have responded with drastic measures, including suspending a number of field programs. There are deep concerns about the impact of the funding crisis on people in urgent need.