With 80 people killed and 40,000 displaced by violence wrought by the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) militia's fight with rival armed groups over drug trafficking territory in northeastern Colombia,

At least 80 people are dead and more than 18,000 have been forced to flee their homes in Colombia, officials say, amid fierce clashes between two rival armed groups on the border with Venezuela.

The children of northeastern Colombia have a message for guerrillas blamed for the country's worst violence in over a decade -- as well as for rival militants tempted to take revenge.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday issued a decree that gives him emergency powers to respond to an outbreak of deadly violence between rival armed groups in the north-eastern Catatumbo region.

As deadly violence caused by territorial conflict forces tens of thousands to evacuate northeastern Colombia, the Colombian government reached out to Venezuela in hopes of forming an alliance to quell the violence on the Venezuelan border.