More than 80 people were killed in the country’s northeast over the weekend following the government’s failed attempts to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Army, a Colombian official said.

Twenty others were injured in the violence that has forced thousands to flee as Colombia’s army scrambled to evacuate people on Sunday, according to William Villamizar, governor of North Santander, where many of the killings took place.

COLOMBIA’S PRESIDENT SAYS COUNTRY WILL BREAK DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL OVER WAR IN GAZA

Among the victims are community leader Carmelo Guerrero and seven people who sought to sign a peace deal, according to a report that a government ombudsman agency released late Saturday.

Officials said the attacks happened in several towns located in the Catatumbo region near the border with Venezuela, with at least three people who were part of the peace talks being kidnapped.

Thousands of people are fleeing the area, with some hiding in the nearby lush mountains or seeking help at government shelters.

“We were caught in the crossfire,” said Juan Gutiérrez, who fled with his family to a temporary shelter in Tibú after they were forced to leave behind their animals and belongings. “We had no time to grab our things. … I hope the government remembers us. … We are helpless here.”

Colombia’s army rescued dozens of people on Sunday, including a family and their pet dog, whose owner held a pack of cold water against the animal’s chest to keep it cool as they evacuated by helicopter.

Defense Minister Iván Velásquez traveled to the northeast town of Cúcuta on Sunday where he held several security meetings and urged armed groups to demobilize.

“The priority is to save lives and guarantee the security of communities,” he said. “We have deployed our troops throughout the entire region.”

Officials also prepared to send 10 tons of food and hygiene kits for approximately 5,000 people in the communities of Ocaña and Tibú, the majority of them having fled the violence.

“Catatumbo needs help,” Villamizar said in a public address on Saturday. “Boys, girls, young people, teenagers, entire families are showing up with nothing, riding trucks, dump trucks, motorcycles, whatever they can, on foot, to avoid being victims of this confrontation.”

The attack comes after Colombia suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, on Friday, the second time it has done so in less than a year.

Colombia’s government has demanded that the ELN cease all attacks and allow authorities to enter the region and provide humanitarian aid.

“Displacement is killing us here in the region,” said José Trinidad, a municipal official for the town of Convención, located in the North Santander region. “We’re afraid the crisis will worsen.”

Trinidad called on insurgent groups to sit down and hammer out a new agreement so “us civilians don’t have to suffer the consequences that we’re suffering right now.”

The ELN has been clashing in Catatumbo with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a guerrilla group that disbanded after signing a peace deal in 2016 with Colombia’s government. The two are fighting over control of a strategic border region that has coca leaf plantations.

In a statement Saturday, the ELN said it had warned former FARC members that if they “continued attacking the population … there was no other way out than armed confrontation.” The ELN has accused ex-FARC rebels of several killings in the area, including the Jan. 15 slaying of a couple and their 9-month-old baby.

Army commander Gen. Luis Emilio Cardozo Santamaría said Saturday that authorities were reinforcing a humanitarian corridor between Tibú and Cúcuta for the safe passage of those forced to flee their homes. He said special urban troops also were deployed to municipal capitals “where there are risks and a lot of fear.”

The ELN has tried to negotiate a peace deal with the administration of President Gustavo Petro five times, with talks failing after bouts of violence. ELN demands include that it be recognized as a political rebel organization, which critics have said is risky.

For more than a decade, US immigration agencies like ICE and CBP have avoided raids on places that provide vital services, like hospitals.

The administration of newly inaugurated United States President Donald Trump has revoked longstanding protections barring immigration raids on schools, hospitals, churches and other “sensitive areas”.

The announcement on Tuesday arrives as part of Trump’s attempts to fulfil a campaign-trail pledge to launch a campaign of “mass deportation”.

According to government estimates, as many as 11 million undocumented people live in the United States, many of them cornerstones in their families and communities.

For more than a decade, federal agencies have issued guidance against carrying out immigration enforcement efforts in places like schools and medical centres, on the basis that such raids might discourage people from seeking necessary services.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) implemented its policy in 2011. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) followed suit in 2013.

But in Tuesday’s statement, the Trump administration accused that guidance of serving to “thwart law enforcement” efforts.

It framed the new directive, repealing the protections, as a form of empowerment for immigration agencies.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the statement said. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

Trump has long conflated irregular migration with criminality. On the campaign trail last year, he repeatedly raised examples like that of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old student who was allegedly murdered by an undocumented person.

He has also used dehumanising language to refer to migrants and asylum seekers.

“The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They’re humans.’ I said, ‘No, they’re not humans. They’re not humans. They’re animals,’” he said in April, while referring to the Riley case.

Studies, however, have repeatedly shown that undocumented immigrants commit far fewer crimes than native-born US citizens.

Human rights groups have warned that Tuesday’s decision could force undocumented people, including children, into precarious situations, cut off from vital services.

“This action could have devastating consequences for immigrant families and their children, including U.S. citizen children, deterring them from receiving medical attention, seeking out disaster relief, attending school, and carrying out everyday activities,” the Center for Law and Social Policy said in a statement.