Event Summary
On 24 October 2025, Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office warned of a serious public order crisis in Puerto Rondón, Arauca, due to active clashes between the FARC-EP dissident fronts (10th, 28th, and 45th) and the ELN’s Eastern War Front. Fighting has directly affected civilians: at least 35 families in El Perocero face restricted mobility and fear, while 29 families in El Ripial and Maporal risk confinement. These hostilities violate international humanitarian law by exposing non-combatants to crossfire and displacement. Authorities have been urged to coordinate urgent protection, deterrence, and humanitarian assistance. The escalation threatens the enabling environment for civil society by increasing insecurity, limiting freedom of movement, and diverting state resources away from social programs toward conflict response—further shrinking civic space in a region already marked by violence and weak institutional presence. In addition to endangering lives, this escalation also erodes the enabling environment for civic engagement and service delivery, deepening vulnerability in an already fragile context.