The death toll from a bloody land dispute between Indigenous groups in Colombia rose to seven, while over 100 people were injured, according to an authority's report on Friday.
On Thursday, the Misak and Nasa peoples clashed in the restive Cauca region of southwestern Colombia.
Raising the death toll to seven on Friday, authorities said four victims were Misak members, two were Nasa members, and one body had not yet been identified.
“A further 110 people were injured,” a spokesperson for the regional governor mentioned.
Members of the Misak community sobbed despairingly as they received the body of Luis Enrique, a community leader and governor of an Indigenous reserve in the rural Silvia municipality.
The group, wearing traditional clothing and carrying white flags, had been waiting for his body outside a local hospital.
“The Nasa community had attacked the Misak after the latter cut through a fence and tried to claim territory they considered their own,” Maria Jacinta Tunubula, of the Misak group, said.
“The Nasa came at us with all those sticks and stones and with weapons, machetes,” the 45-year-old said from a hospital stretcher where she was being treated for injuries.
Videos circulating on social media showed fierce clashes involving sticks and stones, while bloodied bodies lay on the ground and some men carried shotguns.
The army deployed troops in the area.
Illegal coca plantations plague Cauca’s Indigenous lands, and the region is the regular site of kidnappings and attacks conducted by guerrilla groups.
While Indigenous territorial disputes are common in Colombia, they rarely end in deadly clashes.
