Heavy rains and flooding since the beginning of the year have killed 102 people and damaged thousands of homes across much of Colombia, according to state rescue agency Socorro Nacional.
On Sunday, four more people died in a landslide in a poor Bogotá neighbourhood, and much of the capital remains under emergency warning due to elevated river levels.
Socorro Nacional deputy director Carlos Ivan Marquez said that in addition to the dead, the heavy rains since January have completely destroyed 943 homes and damaged more than 7 100 homes in the country, affecting about 82 400 people.
”The rains have affected thousands of farms, infrastructure and families in remote and high-risk areas, hitting them hard economically,” Marquez said.
Max Henriquez, deputy director of the state hydrology and meteorology agency, said the rains will continue to batter much of Colombia, with the agency predicting another five weeks of rain.
”There is an alert for all of the departments in the centre of the country for sudden rises in upland rivers and landslides,” he said. — Sapa-AFP