BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia on Saturday accused FARC dissidents of detonating a car bomb in the town of Corinto in the country’s Cauca province, which left 43 people injured, including 11 public officials, and caused material damages.
The attack, which took place on Friday, was condemned by the government and a United Nations mission in Colombia.
“We express our solidarity with all those affected by this indiscriminate terrorist attack that took place … with a car bomb in front of the mayor’s office in Corinto,” recently appointed Defense Minister Diego Molano said in a recorded video statement on Saturday.
The attack was carried out by the Dagoberto Ramos Mobile Column, a dissident group of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Molano said.
Concrete measures need to be implemented in regions affected by violence to protect communities and give guarantees of security, the U.N. verification mission in Colombia said in a statement.
FARC dissidents reject a 2016 peace deal which ended the group’s part in Colombia’s armed conflict, which has left 260,000 dead and millions displaced.
Government officials and the armed forces estimate there are between 2,500 and 3,000 FARC dissidents throughout the country.
President Ivan Duque, in his nightly broadcast about the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, condemned the bombing.
“Those who use this type of practice are the enemies of peace in our country, they are the enemies of the Colombian people,” Duque said.
Colombia’s government is offering a reward for information regarding leaders of the dissident FARC group, the defense ministry said.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Oliver Griffin; editing by Diane Craft)
