Our work in Colombia started at the end of 1996. Today we continue supporting the organisations and communities in their fight for their rights in two areas: the Medio Atrato in the Department of Chocó, and the capital (Medellín) and the west of the Department of Antioquía.

In 1996, a military attack destroyed the communities living in the Medio Atrato, massacring whole families and killing civilians of all ages. The objective of the attack was to provoke a massive displacement of the Afrocolombian communities (predominant in the region) and indigenous populations, who had started to achieve the collective ownership of their ancestral lands. These lands are the centre of many economic and strategic interests, and therefore these communities and their life and development projects constitute a great "obstacle". Violence against the civilian population and its displacement is not a "collateral damage" of the conflict, but the very target of these operations. 

After the massacres, a humanitarian blockade was imposed on Colombia. In fact, the blockade prevented the communities resisting in their territories from trading, selling their products or buying salt and medicines, while the authorities turned a blind eye. The goal was again to eject these people, this time by means of hunger.

To confront that situation, some popular organisations (black communities grouped in ACIA, and the Embera, Wounam and Katio indigenous communities grouped in OREWA) and the Diocese of Quibdó started working together. Mundubat joined them with projects to assist the ejected population: projects of food aid, sanitary aid, psychosocial attention, preparation for the return, education, human rights, small productive units and transport.

Cooperante Iñigo Egiluz, who was murdered with priest Jorge Luis Mazo by the paramilitary forces, defined the organisation's work as follows: "Obviously, our work clashes with the interests of those who want to get hold of the lands in a violent and unscrupulous way".

In Eastern Antioquía the situation was basically the same: the struggle for the territory and against macroprojects, the displacements and the civilian population as the military target. We had to pursue the same objectives as in the Atrato, always focusing on the communities.