14-year-old environmental activist shot dead in Colombia

BOGOTA: A 14-year-old environmental activist has been shot dead in Colombia, indigenous groups and officials said, in the latest such attack in the world’s deadliest country for environmentalists.
Brenner David Cukunnam was one of two people who took part in a rural security patrol Friday by an indigenous guard in the southwestern Kaka Department, stricken by violence between illegal armed groups.
According to the Kaka Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC), the Nasa Indigenous community group, armed only with batons, met armed men on their patrol route.
The men opened fire, killing a member of the Guard and young Kukunam, whom he described as “the protector of our Mother Earth”.
Two others were injured, CRIC said.
Another indigenous group, the ACIN, has accused dissidents of the FARC guerrilla group of shootings who rejected a 2016 peace deal that ended close to six decades of conflict in Colombia. He said two gunmen have been arrested.
President Ivan Duque said on Twitter that the boy’s death, “the flag bearer of environmental protection in his community of Cauca, leaves us saddened.”
On Monday, Colombia’s human rights ombudsman said 145 community leaders and rights defenders were killed in 2021.
These included 32 representatives of indigenous groups, 16 advocates for rural or agricultural communities, and seven trade unions.
Despite the peace deal, Colombia has seen outbreaks of violence in recent months as fighting over territory and resources by dissident FARC guerrillas, ELN rebel groups, paramilitary forces and drug cartels.
It is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for activists, according to observer groups such as Global Witness, which has identified the country as the deadliest for environmentalists, with 65 people killed in 2020.
The areas with the most killings last year were those in which thousands of hectares of drug harvests or illegal mines are raging on.
The Duke’s government accuses drug traffickers of being behind the killings in the country, which is the world’s largest cocaine producer.
According to the Indepaz thinktank, Kukunam was the second environmental defender killed this year, for a total of 1,288 since the 2016 peace deal.