(CNN) – Some 130 people have been killed and more than 3,000 have been forcibly displaced this year as violence has surged in eastern Colombia, according to the United Nations and the Catholic Church. More than 20 people were killed in those clashes, according to a spokesperson from Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office. HRW also accused Venezuelan armed forces of conducting joint operations with ELN guerrilla fighters against FARC dissidents in the border area in early 2022, contributing to the violence in the region. “Members of the Venezuelan forces are not just being tolerant to ELN abuses, they are participating in joint military operations where the guerrillas do the ‘dirty work’,” Pappier told CNN. FARC and ELN started fighting each other in Arauca and the neighboring Venezuelan state of Apure in 2006.
