The death toll from rebel attacks in Colombia’s Catatumbo region has risen to 60, the Colombian Human Rights Office said.

For years, rival factions have fought for control of the cocaine trade in the region, near the Venezuelan border.

The ombudsman’s office said the latest violence involved the National Liberation Army (ELN), the largest armed group still active in Colombia, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), which signed a peace treaty with the state in 2016.

The attacks broke an uneasy truce between the guerrillas, who have been in peace talks with the government.

The Office of the Ombudsman, a government agency responsible for overseeing the protection of citizens’ human and civil rights, had previously reported that 40 people had died in the violence.

The report said many people, including community leaders and their families, faced “particular risks” of being abducted or killed by the ELN. The report states that 20 people were recently abducted, half of whom were women.

The office said the victims included seven peace treaty signatories and Carmelo Guerrero, leader of the local advocacy group Asuncat (Asuncat).

Asuncat wrote on social media on Friday that company board members Roger Quintero and Freiman Velasquez had been missing since the previous day and suspected that an armed group had abducted them. them.

“In some communities in the region, reports of food shortages have begun to emerge, affecting local communities,” the ombudsman’s office wrote in a statement on Saturday, adding that thousands of people were believed to have been displaced by the violence. .

“Older people, children, teenagers, pregnant women and people with disabilities are suffering the consequences of these events.”

“Catatombo is once again stained with blood,” the Mothers of Peace of Catatumbo wrote on Friday.

“The crossfire not only harms those armed with weapons, it tears apart the dreams of our communities, tears apart families, and sows the seeds of fear in the hearts of our children.”

The ombudsman’s office appeared to blame the latest violence on the National Liberation Army, which had been in peace talks with the Colombian government until it was suspended on Friday over violence in Catatumbo.

President Gustavo Petro, who has campaigned to end violence between armed groups in the country since his election in 2022, accused the ELN of committing “war crimes” and said the group “has shown no will to be peaceful” .

In a statement on Saturday, the ELN accused the FARC of stoking the conflict by killing civilians, Reuters reported. The FARC has not publicly responded to the accusation.

On Saturday, the Colombian army announced it would send additional troops to the area in an effort to restore peace.