Four soldiers were killed in rural Colombia on Wednesday after stepping on a minefield laid by guerrillas who until recently had been negotiating peace with the government.
The army said three other soldiers were wounded in the blast in the southeastern department of Guaviare Department, in an attack attributed to a dissident faction of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
The faction, known as EMBF and led by a commander whose alias is Calarca, rejected a 2016 peace accord under which FARC agreed to lay down its arms.
Leftist President Gustavo Petro suspended peace negotiations with the EMBF in April.
The Colombian army said the explosives detonated early on Wednesday during an offensive operation against the guerrillas.
An army spokesperson said the anti-personnel mines had been planted in the rural San Jose del Guaviare region, an area known for vast coca plantations and considered the birthplace of the first dissident guerrilla factions that broke away from FARC a decade ago.
Colombia is experiencing its worst violence in a decade just weeks before presidential elections scheduled for May 31. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, anti-personnel landmines killed or injured 198 people in Colombia last year, including 75 civilians.
Petro took office in 2022 promising to secure peace agreements with armed groups fighting for control of the country’s lucrative cocaine trade, but with four months left in his term, little progress has been made toward that goal.