movement and access to essential services and food), the forced recruitment of children, sexual violence, and the use of antipersonnel mines. Despite the signing of the Peace Agreement, the armed conflict intensified in some areas of Colombia as a result of armed confrontations between ELN guerrillas, paramilitary groups and state forces seeking to fill the power vacuum left by the demobilized FARC guerrillas. On 27 November, 13 people were killed as a result of a confrontation between FARC dissidents and ELN members in Magüí Payán Nariño department. There were complaints about the weak state presence in areas that were historically controlled by the FARC, which facilitated incursions and control by other illegal armed groups, putting Afrodescendant and peasant farmer communities and Indigenous Peoples at risk. Paramilitary structures continued to operate in various parts of the country, despite their supposed demobilization under the terms of Law 975, passed in 2005. There were reports of paramilitary attacks and threats against leaders of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the department of Antioquia.1 On 29 December, armed men attempted to kill Germán Graciano Posso, the legal representative of the community. Other community members disarmed them, but were injured in the process. The Peace Community had sought to distance itself from the armed conflict by formally refusing to allow state security forces, guerrilla groups or paramilitary groups to enter their territory. Despite their efforts to remain neutral, people living in San José de Apartadó continued to be victims of attacks, torture, sexual abuse and forced displacement at the hands of all parties to the conflict. There were reports of paramilitary incursions in the department of Chocó, in northwestern Colombia, particularly affecting Afro-descendant communities and Indigenous Peoples. On 8 February, a group of paramilitaries belonging to the Gaitanista Self-Defence Forces entered the Humanitarian Zone of Nueva Esperanza en 132 Dios, in the Cacarica River Basin, department of Chocó, searching for several people said to be on a “death list”.2 On 6 March, a paramilitary incursion was reported in the town of Peña Azul, municipality of Alto Baudó, Chocó, which resulted in the largescale displacement of families and the forced confinement of many people within their communities near Peña Azul.3 On 18 April, residents of Puerto Lleras in the Jiguamiandó collective territory, Chocó, reported that they had received threats and that there had been a paramilitary incursion into the Humanitarian Zone of Pueblo Nuevo that put all the inhabitants at risk.4 Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian communities continued to be at risk from anti-personnel mines on their territory; the laying of such mines is a grave violation of international humanitarian law. On 11 July, Sebastián Carpio Maheche, from the Wounaan Indigenous community of Juuin Duur in the Embera Wounaan Katio de Quiparadó Reserve in the municipality of Riosucio, Chocó, was injured by an exploding anti-personnel mine.5 Clashes between ELN guerrillas, the security forces and paramilitary groups put Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian communities at serious risk.6 According to the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, between 1 November 2016 and 31 July 2017, 3,490 Indigenous people were victims of mass forced displacements, 827 were subjected to forced confinement, 115 received threats and 30 were killed, including community leaders. The ELN abducted two Dutch journalists on 19 June in the area of El Tarra, Norte de Santander. Both were released on 24 June. According to the Office of the Ombudsperson, hostage-taking by ELN guerrillas continued. REPARATION FOR VICTIMS Point 5 of the Peace Agreement created the “Truth, Justice, Reparation and Nonrepetition System”, which included the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and judicial mechanisms such as a unit for investigating and dismantling the criminal organizations Amnesty International Report 2017/18