By Oluchi Omai
Bogotá, Colombia - Eighteen members of the Colombian military who were abducted during an operation against the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group have been released, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
The troops, ambushed in the remote Chocó Department in north-western Colombia near the border with Panama, were freed on Monday after being held on an indigenous reservation against their will, the Ombudsman’s Office said.
Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez described how the soldiers were initially surrounded by “nearly 200 people and forcibly transferred, against their will,” during what began as a routine military engagement with the ELN.
Residents of the area ultimately handed the service members over to a humanitarian commission, which included representatives from the Catholic Church and the Ombudsman’s Office, according to a statement posted on social media by the state human-rights agency.
A video released by the Ombudsman’s Office showed the soldiers gathering their tactical gear and weapons before departing the site.
“This development brings great relief to families and colleagues of the released soldiers,” an official from the Ombudsman’s Office said. “Their safe return demonstrates what can be achieved through dialogue and cooperation.”
The ELN, Colombia’s oldest surviving guerrilla organisation, has long operated in areas with limited state presence. Originally founded in 1964 and inspired by the Cuban revolution, the group controls significant drug-producing regions and has been waging an insurgency that has contributed to Colombia’s worst security crisis in decades.
Peace talks between the ELN and President Gustavo Petro’s government have stalled in recent years, leaving negotiations in limbo and fuelling continued violence in rural regions.
The release of the kidnapped soldiers marks a rare positive development amid ongoing insecurity, though analysts say the underlying threats posed by armed groups and criminal networks persist across several parts of the country.
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