With nearly fifty years of armed conflict, Colombia has the highest number of civil war refugees in the world. During the last ten years of the civil war more than 3 million people have been forced to abandon their lands and leave their homes due to violence. Internally displaced people (IDPs) come from remote rural areas, where most of the clashes between leftist guerrillas FARC-ELN, right-wing paramilitary groups and government
Washed clothes hung out to dry in the backyard of a wooden shack, a home of the internally displaced family, slum of Ciudad Bolívar, Bogota, Colombia, 26 May 2010. With nearly fifty years of armed conflict, Colombia has the highest number of civil war refugees in the world. During the last ten years of the civil war more than 3 million people have been forced to abandon their lands and to leave their homes due to the violence. Internally displaced people (IDPs) come from remote rural areas, where most of the clashes between leftist guerrillas FARC-ELN, right-wing paramilitary groups and government forces takes place. Displaced persons flee in a hurry, carrying just personal belongings, and thus they inevitably end up in large slums of the big cities, with no hope for the future.