Colombia Bomb Attack Kills Over Dozen, Injures 38

(MENAFN) The death toll from a bomb attack on a major highway in southwestern Colombia climbed to 14 Saturday, with 38 others wounded after an explosive device buried in a roadside culvert tore through passing vehicles during peak traffic, authorities confirmed.

The blast struck the Pan-American Highway in Cajibio, in the Cauca region, where the device had been concealed beneath a drainage culvert. The timing proved devastating — the explosion ripped through the roadway as traffic was at its heaviest, amplifying casualties and destruction. A traditional rural bus known as a "chiva" was obliterated in the blast, which carved a large crater into the road and mangled several surrounding vehicles. Reports also indicated that an explosive may have been hurled onto a bus moments before detonation, further intensifying the carnage.

Security forces were rapidly deployed to the site in the aftermath.

Petro Points to Rebel Faction
President Gustavo Petro squarely blamed Ivan Mordisco, the head of the EMC faction of the FARC rebel group, for orchestrating the bloodshed. Writing on social media, Petro did not mince words:

"Those who killed 7 civilians and injured 20 civilians in Cajibio are terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers."

In a follow-up statement, the president doubled down, demanding maximum international surveillance and intensified military operations against what he characterized as a "narco-terrorist group."

The violence was not isolated to Cajibio. In a separate incident near a military base in the city of Cali, two people sustained injuries in a bus bombing.

Cauca Governor Octavio Guzman called the attack an outright tragedy, confirming the revised death toll and disclosing that children were among those killed — a detail he said had plunged local communities into profound grief.

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