THE Colombian border village of Tres Bocas has become a ghost town as residents flee to neighbouring Venezuela to escape a new wave of violence in Colombia’s Catatumbo region that has left at least 80 people dead and displaced thousands.

According to the United Nations, more than 18,000 people have fled the north-eastern region as fighting between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and a rival group known as the Farc-EMC intensifies. Of those who had fled, about 1,000 have sought shelter in Venezuela.

“Many of them are afraid of the firefights that have broken out” in rural areas, said Jaime Botero, president of a community association in the town of Tibu, which is about 16 miles to the west of Tres Bocas.