A serious situation of forced recruitment of minors by the illegal armed groups, Eln and Clan del Golfo, which is generating high school dropouts and an increase in youth suicides, found the special commission of the Attorney General’s Office in Chocó.
According to the reports received by the departmental Secretary of Education, in 2022 alone, 6,019 students from the entire department dropped out of schools (more than 54% belong to the San Juan area, which is the epicenter of the current humanitarian crisis). ). The reasons for desertion are due to the fact that the families were displaced or are confined to the municipalities and in most cases for fear of being recruited during their displacement to schools and colleges.
Although there is no exact record on minors recruited in the department, according to figures provided by the Regional Police, so far in 2023 58 minors have been recovered from the ranks of these armed groups. The underreporting of this scourge is considerable.
The adviser delegated by the Attorney General to lead the special commission in Chocó, Jefferson Mena, assured that “One of the serious consequences of the increase in forced recruitment is the suicide of young people for fear of being co-opted for war.”
During a meeting held with the entities in charge of caring for those affected, officials from the Unit for the Attention of Victims, UARIV, dismissed the complaint made by the communities about the fact that they had never received food and other essential items that constitute the humanitarian aid.
However, contrasting this information with the Ombudsman’s Office and international cooperation entities present in the territories, the Attorney General’s Office was able to establish that indeed the aid that the UARIV talks about never arrived, which has aggravated the situation of shortages for more than 9,000 people in Istmina, Nóvita, Sipí and half of San Juan.
Although in the last few hours the ELN’s decision to lift the armed strike in the region was known and according to reports from the departmental Police, there is already normality in the urban centers of these populations, the recommendation of the Public Ministry, after meeting with senior military commanders it is not to lower our guard with the precautions in rural areas while the military units in the field manage to confirm that the mobility of citizens through rivers and highways is safe.
After listening to the communities, mayors and officials present, the Attorney General’s Office asked the National order entities (Ministry of the Interior, Victims Unit, ICBF, among others) as well as the military forces and local authorities, to articulate and present a shock plan to bring institutionality to that subregion and guarantee life, food, health and free mobility among other fundamental rights of these communities.
The adviser Mena assured that, with the results of this visit to the territory, a report will be presented to the Attorney Margarita Cabello Blanco, in order to evaluate the preventive and disciplinary actions that may take place against the breaches of officials responsible for protecting to these communities.