A recent spate of gang violence in Colombia’s western department of Valle de Cauca has left three children dead, one injured and another one missing, according to Radio Caracol.
Colombia’s main radio station reported that three children died in two separate incidents. Cali police reported the death of two children who were killed when gunmen tried to shoot a third party in the violent neighborhood known as the “Portal del Jordan.”
A third child, a young girl, was killed when she was caught between gunfire in Cali’s Comuna 21 when rival gang members began shooting in the streets.
Meanwhile in a town just south of Cali a girl has been reported missing by her parents. It was reported that when her parents tried to call her cell phone the voice of an unidentified man answered, telling them he was in a rural area, when the family arrived they found the girls shoes covered in blood.
Most recently the parents of a five-year-old boy have pleaded with Colombia’s Ministry of Health to arrange a transfer to a medical center in Cali where he can be treated for serious burns sustained when his house caught fire. The fire also killed the young boy’s three-year-old brother.
“Nobody has a burn unit for our son’’ expressed the distraught father of the children, who revealed that he couldn’t afford sufficient health service “therefore we urge the national government not to let him die, declaring the case as a vital emergency so he can be treated by any Cali doctor.”
The recent surge in violence and lack of protection for children is a grave concern for the department of Valle del Cauca, with the city of Cali seemingly being affected the most.
