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A soldier died and two were wounded when a bomb that guerrilla fighters had attached to a donkey exploded in northwest Colombia, a local government official said.

The attack in Valdivia in Colombia’s Antioquia department was attributed to the ELN, with which the Government has suspended peace talks as the conflict-torn South American country faces its worst violence in a decade.

The talks were frozen in January, when the ELN was blamed for over 100 deaths in raids near the border with Venezuela. The group has intensified its attacks on Colombia’s security forces since then.

Antioquia Governor Andres Julian Rendon announced the attack in a post on X, saying one officer was killed and two injured.

The attack was carried out using an “equine loaded with explosives” and sent toward a platoon of soldiers, he said.

With the stated goal of achieving “total peace” after decades of conflict, leftist President Gustavo Petro took office in 2022 and reopened peace talks with an array of armed groups.

Colombia has enjoyed almost a decade of relative peace since the signing of a deal in 2016 led to the disarmament of its biggest rebel army, the FARC.

Yet pockets of the country are still controlled by assorted left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug cartels vying for control of narcotics production, illegal mining and trafficking routes.

During Petro’s term, observers say armed groups financed by the cocaine trade have only grown stronger.

– Agence France-Presse