Colombia Appeal

Colombia’s humanitarian situation has sharply deteriorated in 2025. The country’s decades-long armed conflict intensified, and armed non-state actors now operate in 71 per cent of municipalities. Colombia has the highest level of conflict-related displacement in the Americas and the third highest globally. Nearly 96,000 people have been displaced in 2025, exceeding 2024 levels. In Catatumbo, in Norte de Santander Department, fighting among armed non-state actors has displaced 65,200 people and confined 27,800 people this year. Conditions there continue to deteriorate. 

Forcible confinements and movement restrictions are increasingly used by armed non-state actors to assert control. Between January and August 2025, more than 122,000 individuals faced movement restrictions and 137,600 were confined, nearly matching the total reported for all of 2024. Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities make up 61 per cent of those affected by this. Prolonged violence and loss of access to essential services have disrupted education, leaving more than 900,000 children out of school nationwide. More than 1 million people have been denied humanitarian assistance in 2025. Fourteen departments reported bans on humanitarian entry, and there are 154 documented incidents against aid workers.

In 2025, at least 11,000 children were victims of mass displacement, confinement and movement restrictions, though estimates suggest the actual figure exceeds 291,000. Recruitment and exploitation disproportionately affect Indigenous children; in 2024, 578 cases of child recruitment were documented, including 277 involving Indigenous children. Incidents involving anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance soared, with 524 people affected in the first half of 2025, a 145 per cent increase compared with 2024. Civilians accounted for 70 per cent of deaths, among them 56 children.

Stricter migration controls reduced crossings across the Darién Gap by 97 per cent but triggered reverse migration. In the first half of 2025, 2,937 migrants crossed the Darién Gap from Colombia to Panama, compared with 302,000 in 2024. In terms of reverse migration, 15,000 migrants crossed from Panamá between January and August 2025, expressing their intent to return to their country of origin. Nearly 20 per cent of returnees are children, many unaccompanied. Migrant children continue to experience family separation; limited access to education, health and nutrition services; and high exposure to violence, including gender-based violence. 

Disasters have deeply affected vulnerable communities. In the first half of 2025, 303 emergencies (floods, droughts and landslides) affected 400,357 people, often in conflict zones, increasing their exposure to diseases and malnutrition. 

If current trends from 2025 continue, 2026 could mark Colombia’s worst humanitarian conditions in a decade, with children experiencing the worst effects of the country’s overlapping crises.

In alignment with the Humanitarian Reset and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee's Flagship Initiative, UNICEF will deliver timely, life-saving, multisectoral interventions through a people-centred, area-based approach. UNICEF will prioritize crisis-affected, predominantly rural communities with limited State presence, identified in coordination with humanitarian partners. To advance localization, UNICEF will strengthen local capacities and partnerships to accelerate preparedness and response in line with community needs. Partnerships with local governments, community-based organizations and ethnic groups will ensure rapid, culturally appropriate and sustainable humanitarian action. While grounded in immediate needs, UNICEF’s response will also help restore and sustain essential services, consistent with the humanitarian–development–peace nexus. Under its people-centred approach, UNICEF will operationalize the inter-agency strategy on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and accountability to affected populations. 

In health and nutrition, UNICEF will prioritize crisis-affected and remote communities with limited access to healthcare, delivering life-saving interventions for women and children. These include immunization, prenatal care, treatment of wasting and management of childhood illnesses. Support will also include emergency mental health and psychosocial support, referrals and promotion of healthy practices to prevent disease and malnutrition. 

The education response will ensure learning continuity and learning environments through temporary learning spaces, early childhood services and mental health and psychosocial support for students and teachers. Recovery efforts will support the reopening of schools and strengthen learning strategies tailored to migrants, refugees and displaced children.

WASH interventions will ensure rapid access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene for people affected by displacement, confinement and disasters. The response will focus on vulnerable communities, schools and health facilities in remote areas. In coordination with local emergency committees and partners, WASH actions will restore essential services and build community capacity for timely and life-saving response in high-risk contexts. 

UNICEF will prevent and respond to child recruitment, family separation and violence, including gender-based violence. The response will promote community-based risk plans, protection pathways and explosive ordnance risk education, while supporting safe spaces offering mental health and psychosocial support and gender- and age-responsive services for conflict-affected children. Efforts addressing violence (including gender-based violence) will combine prevention and risk mitigation with survivor-centred services, community mobilization and training for teachers, health staff and protection officers. 

Cross-cutting priorities will strengthen humanitarian response and contribute to long-term resilience. Climate, environmental and disaster risk reduction actions will help protect children by reducing risks and building community resilience. Gender-responsive action will promote equality and empower adolescents as agents of change. UNICEF will support the transition strategy under the Humanitarian Reset, strengthening coordination and localization and preparing clusters for a gradual shift to government leadership.