Biodiversity conference

Bomb attack: Guerrilla violence hits UN summit

Shortly after the start of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Colombia, there were attacks by a guerrilla group in the immediate vicinity of the venue on Monday evening. They carried out a bomb attack and shot dead three civilians. The splinter group EMC is in open conflict with the government in Bogotá. 

According to the Colombian authorities, the attacks by the Central General Staff (EMC) group took place just a few kilometers from Cali, where the UN conference is being held until November 1. The members blew up a military vehicle and shot dead three civilians.

Three civilians shot dead
According to the army, the bomb attack occurred on Monday evening in the village of El Bordo, around 150 kilometers from Cali. "The explosive charge was detonated about 100 meters before the truck arrived," regional army commander General Federico Mejia told Blu Radio. According to the Colombian authorities, there were no casualties in the terrorist attack.

In contrast to the attack in Suárez: three civilians who were traveling together in a car were also shot dead there on Monday evening, around 45 kilometers from Cali. The victims were two men and a woman from the same family, as the mayor of Suárez, Cesar Cerón, confirmed to Blu Radio. The area is controlled by a subgroup of the EMC.

Security of COP16 "is guaranteed"
The EMC is a splinter group of the left-wing FARC guerrillas (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and is in open conflict with the government in Bogotá. Even before the start of COP16 in Cali, the group had called on foreign delegations to stay away from the conference. However, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro declared that the security of COP16 was "guaranteed".

Security measures have been tightened to protect the conference and around 11,000 Colombian police officers and soldiers have been deployed. At the conference, which opened on Monday and runs until November 1, around 23,000 participants, including a hundred ministers and a dozen heads of state and government, want to agree a plan by 2030 to curb the destruction of nature and the global extinction of species.