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At least 4 Farc fighters and an army sergeant have been killed in violent clashes in rural zones of 2 departments in southwest of the country.
The army corporal has been killed by a rebel in a clash in the municipality of Caloto (Cauca department).
Colombia’s largest rebel group, the FARC, have announced a ceasefire of three weeks to allow elections scheduled for June 15 to take place without guerrilla attacks.
The ceasefire was announced by the FARC’s commander-in-chief, “Timochenko,” in an open letter directed to hard-line presidential candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga who has been critical of ongoing peace talks between the group and the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos, who is seeking reelection.
Four FARC guerrillas have been killed in fighting in Colombia this weekend, the army said.
The rebels died in clashes with army troops in Arauca, Meta and Cauca provinces.
The National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia’s second-biggest guerrilla group, is recruiting girls to charge extortion payments from illegal miners and is giving them weapons, El Tiempo newspaper has reported.
The newspaper said that in a rebel video, which the Colombian army says it seized during a raid on an ELN jungle camp last January, around 15 girls aged 13 to 17 are shown holding AK-47 assault rifles and M-60 machine guns. They are dressed in camouflage uniforms with ELN insignia.
The Colombian military has said it killed 14 FARC rebels in a raid on a camp near the Venezuelan border. The leftist fighters were reportedly from a unit responsible for an ambush that killed 14 soldiers in August.
The bodies of those killed during the raid were shown to reporters in Aruca state on Monday. The air and ground attack on the FARC camp located near the town of Tame, in a rural area near the border with Venezuela, was carried out Sunday night, the military said in a statement.
