The ELN terrorist attacks in the Catatumbo area have caused thousands of people to flee the area.

More than 80 people have been killed in just three days in northeastern Colombia following failed to negotiate peace and rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN), an official said.

The ELN launched an attack in the northeast of Catatumbo last Thursday on a a competitive team formed by former members of the now defunct The FARC militia who continued to fight after disarming in 2017.

Civilians were trapped, and by Sunday, “more than 80 people have lost their lives,” said Governor William Villamizar of the department of Norte de Santander, which includes Catatumbo.

The final count on Saturday was 60 people, including seven ex-combatants Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in five towns in the cocaine-growing region near the border with Venezuela.

Among the people affected by the disaster is community leader Carmelo Guerrero and seven people who want to sign a peace agreement, according to a report released by the government ombudsman late Saturday.

Thousands of people are fleeing the area, some hiding in nearby high mountains or seeking help in government buildings.

Villamizar said at least a dozen people had been injured and 5,000 others had fled their homes in the violence, describing the incident as “terrible”.

“Catatumbo needs help,” Villamizar said in a public address on Saturday.

“Boys, girls, young people, young people, whole families are showing up with nothing, lorry riders, dumpers, motorbikes, whatever they can, they are walking, to avoid being victims of this war.”

The army said more than 5,000 troops had been deployed to the area to “strengthen security”.

General Luis Emilio Cardozo Santamaria said on Saturday that the authorities are strengthening the humanitarian aid route between Tibu and Cucuta so that the refugees can go safely. He said special rural forces had also been sent to the big cities “where there is a lot of danger and fear”.

The FARC disarmed under a 2016 peace deal after more than half a century of fighting.

However, the agreement failed to end violence involving left-wing groups, including remnants of the FARC, right-wing militias and drug-trafficking groups in the country’s economic and human-trafficking system.

The ELN has accused former FARC rebels of killing several people in the area, including the killing of a couple and a nine-month-old child on January 15.

In a statement on Saturday, the ELN said it had warned former FARC members that “if they continue to attack people… there is no other way to escape but armed struggle”.

The ELN in recent days has also fought the Gulf Clan, the world’s largest cocaine-producing drug group, leaving at least nine dead in a northern Colombian region.

The recent violence prompted President Gustavo Petro on Friday to suspend talks with the ELN in a bid for “complete peace” in the violence-ridden country.