BOGOTA, May 12 - A report released by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday concluded that the humanitarian toll on civilians from Colombia's long-running internal conflict climbed to its worst level in a decade in 2025. The organization attributes the deterioration to heightened hostilities and armed actors disregarding humanitarian law.
Colombia's internal conflict, stretching across six decades, involves state forces confronting leftist guerrillas and criminal groups vying for control of strategic drug trafficking corridors and areas linked to illicit gold extraction. The ICRC's annual review, which relies on official government figures for several metrics, documents steep increases across multiple measures of civilian harm in 2025.
- At least 235,619 people experienced individual displacement.
- 87,069 people were displaced during mass displacement events.
- 176,730 people were confined - instances where armed groups impose curfews or limit civilian mobility.
Compared with 2024, the report records a 100% increase in individual displacement, a 111% rise in mass displacement events, and a 99% increase in confinement. The report also documents 965 people injured or killed by explosives in 2025 - most of them civilians - and records 308 new disappearances.
Explosive-related deaths or injuries, such as those caused by mines, rose 34% in 2025, while disappearances increased by 22% compared with the prior year. In addition, the ICRC logged 282 violent acts directed at health workers tied to the armed conflict.
"The humanitarian situation in 2025 results from progressive deterioration that the ICRC has warned about since 2018," said Olivier Dubois, the organization’s regional chief in Colombia’s capital Bogota.
Beyond displacement and explosive harm, the report says civilians were subject to homicides, disappearances, threats, sexual violence and the recruitment of children and adolescents. The ICRC frames the 2025 figures as the culmination of a downward trend it has been tracking for several years.
The findings underscore an intensifying humanitarian emergency with broad implications for civilian protection and the delivery of essential services in affected areas.