The bishops of the department of Chocó, the poorest in Colombia, made a call to help the tens of thousands of families affected by the weekend floods, which join the armed strike imposed by the National Liberation Army (ELN). ).
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From the municipality of Alto Baudó with the presence of the Mpal Risk Management Committee headed by its mayor, we received for the PMU the update of data on the impact, most pressing needs and we began attention in the response phase with the first kits… pic.twitter.com/zLK8QlwKMO
— Nubia Carolina Córdoba-Curi (@NubiaCarolinaCC) November 11, 2024
To the measure decreed by the ELN, which has been in force since November 9, were added the consequences of 72 uninterrupted hours of rain that have caused the Baudó, Atrato and San Juan rivers to overflow, as well as flooding on the Pacific coast of the department.
The governor of Chocó, Nubia Carolina Córdoba, told Blue Radio that more than 37,000 families have been affected. In addition, he indicated that the armed strike makes it difficult to transfer aid to the communities, several of which have not only lost their homes, but also their crops.
“It is critical how the armed strike interferes with humanitarian care. People try to go out to get food and fuel, but they return them without allowing them to stock up,” he denounced.
According to the governor, reports indicate that the rains have affected 85% of the territory of Chocó, the department that according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) experienced in 2023 the highest level of monetary poverty, with 67% of its population.
The Catholic Church asks for help for victims
The humanitarian crisis in Chocó has also been denounced by the bishops of Quibdó, Mons. Winston Mosquera Moreno; and from Istmina-Tadó, Mons. Mario de Jesús Álvarez.
In a video published on the website of the Colombian Episcopate, Bishop Álvarez called “for all authorities, from the national government, the departmental government, the territorial entities, to take into consideration what many brothers and sisters are experiencing. ours at this moment.”
“We as a Church are eager,” he added, “both the Diocese of Quibdó and the Diocese of Istmina-Tadó, through the National Secretary of Social Pastoral-Cáritas Colombia, to reach out with an outstretched hand, but this has to be the collaboration of all the institutions and, specifically, the Government, to whom our citizens entrust the responsibility of directing them.”
Mons. Mosquera also urged to help the victims so that “they can return to normality as far as possible and let us also pray to God so that the water goes down and they can return to their places of origin.”
In addition, in a statementthe Bishop of Quibdó rejected the tenth armed strike that the ELN decrees in the department so far in 2024, which forces “the entire community to confine itself to the municipalities of the San Juan (river) basin in the department of “It crashed.”
“This situation is also getting worse today for everyone due to the strong winter wave that is hitting communities throughout the department with full intensity due to the overflowing of most of the rivers that bathe the entire Choco territory,” he indicated.
For its part, the Colombian government declared the area in a disaster situation and indicated that 2.5 billion Colombian pesos (572 thousand dollars) would arrive this Tuesday to address the emergency.
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Prensa I have been sent to cover Pope Francis’ trips to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the Synodality Synod in the Vatican in 2023.