How Many Victims Has Colombia’s Armed Conflict Claimed?

After almost four years of investigations, the Truth Commission in Colombia presented its final report on the internal armed conflict on June 28, 2022. In almost 900 pages, the publication offers further details on the crimes committed over nearly six decades of fighting, and provides recommendations on how to stop such atrocities from happening again.

According to the paper, more than 450,000 homicides were documented in Colombia’s armed conflict between 1985 and 2018, as well as more than 120,000 recorded as having ‘disappeared’. While estimates vary on the exact death toll, when including those unreported, some believe the figure could reach as many as 800,000 people. Paramilitaries have been named as the main perpetrators of the killings, responsible for approximately 45 percent of the deaths, while guerrilla groups and state agents accounted for 27 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

The Truth Commission is one of the three institutions that make up the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition created within the framework of the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).