Colombia’s National Reparation and Reconciliation Commission announces that 15.5% of 55,000 former members of illegal armed groups have rearmed.
This means that more than 8,500 former paramilitaries and guerrillas have abandoned disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs and rejoined the ranks of illegal armed groups.
According to the government commission, neo-paramilitary or drug trafficking groups have approximately 6,000 members.
According to the CNNR, “these facts represent risks for the victims of the internal conflict and the access to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of no repetition.”
Some 31,000 paramilitaries demobilized between 2003 and 2006 following an agreement between paramilitary umbrella organization AUC and the government. Another 24,000 fighters of both paramilitary and guerrilla groups demobilized individually in the following years.
In September, the CNNR said that 10,000 former members of illegal armed groups had rearmed.
