Colombia: Quarterly Meeting
Tomorrow morning (22 April), the Security Council will hold its quarterly briefing on Colombia. Special Representative and Head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia Carlos Ruiz Massieu will brief on recent developments and the Secretary-General’s latest 90-day report on the mission, which covers the period from 27 December 2024 to 26 March. The Council will also receive a briefing from a civil society representative who will address the situation of children affected by conflict in the country. Colombia will participate in the meeting under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure. Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Laura Sarabia will represent her country for the first time since assuming her role in late January. Closed consultations are scheduled to follow the open briefing.
Ruiz Massieu and Council members are likely to focus on the severe escalation of violence that occurred in several departments in Colombia during the period covered by the Secretary-General’s report. The security situation in the north-eastern region of Catatumbo in the Norte de Santander department saw a particularly severe deterioration, described by the UN as “the gravest escalation of violence the country has experienced” since the signing of the 2016 Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace between the government of Colombia and the former rebel group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP).
In mid-January, violence in the region intensified between the guerrilla group Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and the 33rd Front, a branch of the Estado Mayor de los Bloques y Frentes (EMBF), which splintered from the general staff of the dissident group of the former FARC-EP that identifies itself as the Estado Mayor Central Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (EMC). The armed groups have traditionally fought over control of coca crops and drug trafficking corridors in the area. (For more information, see the brief on Colombia in our April 2025 Monthly Forecast.)
The Secretary-General’s report emphasises that the crisis in Catatumbo “has drawn attention to the persistence of structural challenges and factors underpinning the ongoing violence in conflict-affected regions, which the Final Agreement aims to address, notably the limited presence of the State, land reform and the illegal economies”. Speakers at tomorrow’s meeting may echo this statement, while stressing the need to implement the 2016 agreement comprehensively to address the root causes of conflict across all conflict-affected regions in the country. There may be reference to the government’s launch on 6 March of a “Pact for Catatumbo”, which is aimed at strengthening the presence of state institutions and includes the voluntary and compensated eradication of 25,000 hectares of coca crops in the region, land ownership formalisation, and the construction of roads and infrastructure. Members might seek more information on the status of the implementation of this pact and suggest that similar efforts should be pursued in other conflict-affected regions to avoid the outbreak and recurrence of violence. Some members may also welcome the assistance that the verification mission provided during the Catatumbo crisis, including by conducting emergency evacuations.
The Secretary-General’s latest report provides a long-term overview of the implementation of the peace agreement since 2016, highlighting both successes and challenges. Regarding rural reform, the report notes that formalisation of land tenure had reached 3,216,709 hectares, representing 45.9 percent of the seven-million-hectare target stipulated in the agreement. It adds that the current administration of President Gustavo Petro Urrego has contributed to 94 percent of the hectares adjudicated since the signing of the agreement and 43.6 percent of those formalised. Speakers at tomorrow’s meeting may welcome the government’s focus on rural reform, while calling for more efforts in other areas where progress has been slow, such as the agreement’s gender and ethnic provisions. Some members may stress in this context the importance of implementing Colombia’s National Action Plan on women, peace and security (WPS) that was launched in November 2024.
There may also be expressions of concern about the negative effects of violence on the implementation of several aspects of the agreement. A 17 April report by the Investigation and Prosecution Unit of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP)—the judicial component of the Comprehensive System for Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition established by the 2016 agreement—describes how persistent violence has severely disrupted the reintegration of former combatants. It notes that, since 2016, one in four territorial areas for training and reintegration (TATRs) have been “relocated or ceased to exist due to extreme violence” against peace signatories. It identifies 12 municipalities with high risk levels in the departments of Cauca, Putumayo, Meta, and Caquetá, stressing that state response is urgently needed in those areas to protect former FARC-EP combatants. The report also warns that the pervasive violence “may severely limit the [SJP’s] efforts to implement restorative justice measures”.
Council members are likely to emphasise the importance of continued focus on implementing the 2016 agreement, especially as Colombia prepares for presidential elections in 2026. There appears to be some concern about future progress, including due to the recent departure from the government of key officials such as former Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo, who had overseen implementation of the “rapid action response plan” that aims to accelerate implementation of the accord, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Gilberto Murillo Urrutia.
Some of these concerns were also raised during an 11 April meeting hosted by the verification mission in Bogotá to discuss the Secretary-General’s latest report, which was attended by Sarabia, signatories to the peace agreement, and representatives of several member states serving on the Security Council. At the meeting, signatories to the peace agreement emphasised the need to create a high-level body to coordinate the institutions involved in the implementation of the peace agreement, arguing that institutional efforts have thus far been fragmented and ineffective. They also stressed the need to maintain the architecture created to support the agreement, including the Commission for the Follow-up, Promotion and Verification of the Implementation of the Final Agreement (CSIVI)—the main forum for dialogue between the parties on the accord’s implementation—which has not been convened in almost a year. Issues relating to the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement are also expected to be addressed at a meeting of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) which will be held on 23 April. Briefings are expected from Sarabia and Diego Tovar, a former FARC-EP combatant who represents the signatories to the 2016 agreement at the CSIVI and briefed the Council at its 11 July 2024 and 21 January quarterly meetings.
Tomorrow, the civil society representative and Council members are expected to express grave concern about the situation of children affected by conflict in Colombia. In a 22 January report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that his office verified 216 cases of recruitment and use of children by non-state armed groups in 2024, noting that 58 percent of the affected children belonged to indigenous or Afro-descendent peoples. The report makes several recommendations, which some speakers may echo tomorrow, such as dialogue efforts conducted by the government with armed groups as part of its “total peace” policy including “as a central point of discussion” the unrestricted access of the state in the territories, to guarantee the protection of children and the immediate release of children recruited by armed groups.
Speakers may also call on donors to enhance their support for humanitarian efforts in the country, as agencies such as UNICEF have warned that funding cuts may affect their ability to support children in need. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has also noted that some humanitarian organisations in Colombia halted their work because of US foreign aid cuts and announced that OCHA will scale back its operations in the country.
Developments related to the “total peace” policy are also likely to be discussed tomorrow. On 5 April, the government announced an agreement with the Comuneros del Sur, a splinter group of the ELN operating in the Nariño department. Among other issues, the group pledged to hand over its arms over the next three months and commitments were made regarding the replacement of 5,000 hectares of illicit crops. There may also be reference to the government’s decision on 16 April to not renew its bilateral ceasefire with the EMBF, which until then had been the only remaining ceasefire observed between the government and an armed group.
