yunhap newsA teenage environmentalist was murdered in Colombia, where attacks on environmental and human rights activists continue.
According to the AFP news agency on the 18th (local time), two people, including 14-year-old Brainer David Kukunjame, were shot and killed when people guarding an indigenous village in the western Kauca region were attacked by a man on the 14th (local time).
The Kauka Regional Indigenous Peoples Committee described the deceased Kukunyame as a “guardian of the earth” and said that he encountered the gangsters while patrolling the village with others with only a club.
Another indigenous group claimed the attackers were remnants of the former largest rebel, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Colombia is considered the most dangerous country for human rights and environmental activists in the world.
Those who tried to protect their livelihoods and the human rights of indigenous peoples are often the targets of criminal gangs trying to make money by growing drug raw materials or illegal mining.
Recently, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that it received reports of 202 alleged murders in Colombia last year, including human rights and environmental activists and community activists, and so far, 78 of them have been confirmed as facts.
The Colombian Human Rights Ombudsman also reported the day before that 145 people were killed, including activists last year.
Colombian President Ivan Duque said on Twitter that he was mourning the death of “Kauca environmentalist” Cucuñame and that he would work to find out the truth about the incident.
