Guerrilla attacks near COP16 host city in Colombia
Security was stepped up, with some 11,000 Colombian police and soldiers deployed to safeguard the event with the backing of UN and United States security experts.
CALI, Colombia - Colombian authorities on Tuesday announced reinforced security around the city of Cali, host of the COP16 UN biodiversity summit, after guerrillas at war with the government targeted soldiers with a bomb overnight and shot dead civilians traveling in a car.
The EMC rebel group, engaged in stop-start peace negotiations with Bogota, had told international delegations not to attend the UN meeting after its fighters were targeted in a military campaign, warning the conference "will fail."
Security was stepped up, with some 11,000 Colombian police and soldiers deployed to safeguard the event with the backing of UN and United States security experts.
The EMC, or Central General Staff, is a splinter group of the FARC guerrilla army that disarmed under a peace agreement with the government in 2017.
On Monday night, just hours after the official start of the high-stakes negotiations in Cali on ways to stop humankind's rapacious destruction of nature, EMC fighters targeted a military vehicle with a bomb.
The attack happened at El Bordo, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Cali, the army reported on X.
"The explosive charge was detonated about 100 meters ahead of the truck... Fortunately there were no injuries," regional army commander General Federico Mejia told Blu Radio.
In response, the army "reinforced" its "offensive" in the Cauca department, he added, against the guerrillas that control crops of coca -- the main ingredient in cocaine, of which Colombia is the world's largest producer.
Also on Monday night, three civilians driving together in a car were shot dead in Suarez, in the same department, some 45 kilometers from Cali.
The victims were two men and a woman from the same family, Suarez Mayor Cesar Ceron told Blu Radio, in an area controlled by an EMC sub-group.
Some 23,000 people including about a dozen heads of state and 100-plus ministers are accredited for COP16 -- the biggest UN biodiversity conference yet, running until November 1. - AFP
