Eighteen Colombian indigenous communities living in the Amazon jungle are threatened with extinction by the ongoing government-rebel conflict, the United Nations said Monday.
UN Development Program representative for Colombia Bruno Moro said he was alarmed at hearing a report from Colombia's National Indian Organization that at least 18 indigenous communities are threatened with extintion.
He said theirs was urgent humanitarian plight, but acknowledged that progress had been made in protecting Colombia's indigenous populations, who comprise about one million people in 84 communities.
He said those most threatened by the ongoing armed struggle between the government and two major leftist rebel groups were in the Amazon basin, including the Yamalero, Makaguaje, Pisamira, Tsiripu, Eduria, Wipijiwi, and Nukak Maku.
According to the National Indian Organization, 25 natives were murdered, two disappeared, three were killed by landmines and 2,117 were displaced by the conflict in 2008.