Bogota, Colombia - Colombia's United Nations Human Rights Office warned on Tuesday that the five indigenous groups in the Mountain Legend faced the extinction of "physical and cultural" which is a serious threat stemming from armed groups fighting on their territory and under-protected states.

Scott Campbell, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement that the risk of physical and cultural extinction in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is “a ongoing tragedy that we can and must prevent.”

Campbell urged the Colombian government to protect the indigenous groups of Kogui, Wiwa, Kankuamo, Arhuaco and Ette Naka, whose total population is about 54,700.

Campbell's statement came after a visit to the Sierra Nevada area, with UN officials speaking with representatives of the indigenous tribes.

“These groups were brutal attacks by armed African groups in all forms,” Campbell said, highlighting the “destructive influence on their lives, land, territory, their self-government and their spirituality.”

In 2022, UNESCO added the ancestral knowledge of these indigenous groups to the intangible cultural heritage of their human inventory. This recognition highlights the “fundamental role” of their traditions in preserving the San Madas in Nevada, a mountain range that emerges directly from the Caribbean Sea and has snow peaks that reach nearly 6,000 meters.

But for many years, the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada have been attacked by settlers and rebel groups.

Campbell said rebel groups in the area are imposing curfews on Indigenous communities and interfering with their local councils. He added that hundreds of indigenous people from the Mata Mountains of Serada, Nevada, were forcibly displaced, while last year, a leader of the Ahako community was murdered and members of the Kogi tribe disappeared.

The Colombian government has been working to appease rural areas where insurgent groups and drug trafficking gangs fight for the abandoned territory of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, a large guerrilla that established peace with the government in 2016.

President Gustavo Petro has negotiated peace with the remaining rebel groups in the country, but so far the negotiations have had few results.

Campbell urged the government to protect the Indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada not only through military power, but also by providing better health care, education and employment opportunities.

“The violence stems from disputes over controlled territory by non-state armed groups, drug trafficking channels and various forms of illegal economic activity,” Quimper said.

____

Follow AP coverage in Latin America and the Caribbean