In Colombia, a 14-year-old environmental activist was shot and killed.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) – According to indigenous organisations and government, a 14-year-old environmental activist was shot and killed in Colombia, the world’s worst country for environmentalists.

Breiner David Cucuname was one of two persons slain by an indigenous guard while participating in a rural security patrol in the southern Cauca department, which has been beset by conflict between illegal armed organisations.

According to the Cauca regional indigenous council, the Nasa indigenous community came upon armed individuals on their patrol route, equipped only with batons (CRIC).

The guys opened fire, killing a guard member and young Cucuname, whom the group called as “a protector of our Mother Earth.”

According to the CRIC, two more people were hurt.

ACIN, a Colombian indigenous organisation, blamed the shooting on FARC guerrilla separatists who rejected a 2016 peace accord that ended almost six decades of violence in the country. It was reported that two of the shooters had been apprehended.

The loss of the kid, a “flag-bearer of environmental conservation in his village of Cauca,” fills President Ivan Duque with anguish, he stated on Twitter.

Colombia’s human rights ombudsman announced on Monday that 145 community leaders and human rights advocates were assassinated in 2021.

There were 32 indigenous representatives, 16 advocates for rural or agricultural areas, and seven trade unionists among them.

Despite the peace agreement, Colombia has experienced a spike in bloodshed in recent months as dissident FARC rebels, the ELN rebel organisation, paramilitary forces, and drug cartels compete for territory and resources.

According to observer groups like as Global Witness, it is one of the most hazardous nations in the world for activists, with 65 environmentalists slain in 2020.

Last year, the regions with the most deaths were those where conflict raged over thousands of hectares of narcotic crops or illicit mining.

Drug dealers are being blamed by Duque’s administration for the assassinations in the world’s greatest cocaine producer.

Cucuname was the second environmental defender slain this year, bringing the total number of environmental defenders killed to 1,288 since the 2016 peace deal, according to the Indepaz research group.