Thousands of Venezuelans are "trapped" between violence and poverty in their country and the "brutal conflict" in northwestern Colombia, where armed groups are fighting over the territory, warned, Thursday, August 8, Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Located in the Catatumbo River area, "Venezuelans fleeing the humanitarian catastrophe in their own country are caught up in this vicious circle of desperate flight and war," said José Miguel Vivanco, director of the NGO's America, quoted in a statement.

A total of 25,000 Venezuelans are in this area in the Colombian department of Norte de Santander, according to figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCH), quoted by HRW.

Coca plantations

With 33,598 hectares of narco-plantations, this department strategically located on the border with Venezuela became in 2018 the second largest coca leaf plantation, the raw material of cocaine. A peculiarity that makes it an area rife with violence between the National Liberation Army (ELN), the country's last guerrilla, and the drug gang of Los Pelusos.

>> To read also: In Catatumbo, "the damned ones of the coca"

Some 3.3 million people have fled since the beginning of 2016 the crisis in Venezuela, according to the United Nations. Colombia, which has 1.4 million Venezuelans, is the country in the region that hosts the largest number of migrants from the oil country.

Bloody battles

Since the withdrawal of demobilized rebels from northeastern Colombia's FARC in 2017, the region has been rife with bloody battles between different groups aimed at controlling drug trafficking and illicit mining.

These armed groups are particularly targeting children and migrants they are forcibly recruiting, especially for the coca harvest, Vivanco said.

With AFP and Reuters