Five decades of war among leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug lords and the government in Colombia have left 450,000 people killed and more than 124,000 disappeared.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he will declare an emergency over the guerrilla attacks in the northeast that have killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee.

A Colombian official says more than 80 people have been killed in the country’s northeast region following failed attempts by the government to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Army.

Colombia has suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, after blaming the rebel group for an attack that killed two soldiers and injured more than 20.

The Colombian government claims the leader of a remaining Marxist guerrilla group is on his deathbed in Venezuela. The guerrilla group claims he was injured but he is recovering.

A Colombian rebel group says government troops killed its leader, who had abandoned the 2016 peace deal with Colombia’s government and had been at large for three years.

The flag of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) hangs in El Diamante, Colombia. The decision to return to arms angered many Colombians, many of whom believe the FARC benefited from a sweetheart deal. But a group of dissident FARC commanders never demobilized and have seen their ranks swell to around 2,500 fighters through recruitment. In addition, the more radical National Liberation Army, or ELN, has filled the void left by withdrawing FARC rebels and stepped up attacks in cities, including the car bombing of a police academy in Bogota that killed 22 people. Marin's move is "better late than never," said an ELN commander in Colombia's western jungle who goes by the alias Uriel.

- March 26, 2008: Top FARC leader Marulanda dies of natural causes after more than four decades fighting government. - Aug. 12, 2012: President Juan Manuel Santos announces new peace talks with FARC. - Sept. 26, 2016: Santos and FARC's top commander formally sign accord. - April 9, 2018: Authorities arrest a former FARC leader, Seuxis Hernndez, known as "Jess Santrich," who is wanted in the U.S. on drug charges. - Aug. 31, 2018: Government says former senior FARC leader Luciano Marin, alias Ivn Mrquez, has disappeared.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Illegal armed groups have forced some 40,000 people to flee their homes as they fight for control of drug trafficking routes in Colombia's Catatumbo region bordering Venezuela, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. The international watchdog published a 64-page report on abuses committed against civilians by armed groups in the mountainous area. Human Rights Watch accused Colombia's government of "not meeting its obligations" to protect civilians in the area, which include an estimated 25,000 Venezuelan migrants. Only two members of armed groups have been convicted for murders in Catatumbo over the past three years. Human Rights Watch is calling on the Colombia government to increase the number of invesigators working on cases of forced displacement, murders and disappearances in the region.