Colombia fighting drives thousands from home

A new report says the armed conflict in Colombia has displaced more than one-hundred-and-thirty thousand people so far this year.

The Centre for Human Rights and the Displaced Codhes, a non-governmental organisation, found that paramilitary death squads were responsible for more than half of the cases.

Many people flee when paramilitaries execute alleged guerrilla sympathisers in their community.

They often end up in shanty towns on the outskirts of Colombia's big cities, where a growing number of displaced people now live.

The United Nations calculates that anywhere between four-hundred-and-fifty thousand and one point six million Colombians have been driven from their homes at some point by the fighting.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service