Colombia Earthquake Death Toll Climbs Past 200

The death toll from Monday’s 7.4 magnitude earthquake in western Colombia has risen to at least 224, with rescue crews still unable to reach the epicentre as they dig through collapsed buildings in search of survivors.

The earthquake has been followed by more than seventy aftershocks, according to Colombia’s Geological Service, including a magnitude 3.8 tremor felt in several cities this morning. Like the original quake, its epicentre was located in San José del Palmar in the department of Chocó, though at a much greater depth of 99 kilometres. Officials say the aftershocks, which have included one as strong as magnitude 4.8, are likely to continue for some time.

“These can last for days, weeks, or even months, as energy continues to be released until the areas surrounding the rupture zone of the main earthquake are balanced again,” the agency said.

In Manizales, Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas said the death toll there stands at five, but the road to recovery will be long. The city has recorded sixty buildings with total or partial collapse, and officials expect the number of affected residents to climb from two thousand to as many as four thousand.

In Chocó, the government reports nine additional deaths, bringing the department’s toll higher, along with 138 people injured and five still missing, according to Governor Nubia Carolina Córdoba-Curi.

The disaster has landed just days into the term of Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office last week on a hardline security platform. He had signalled his first weeks would focus on cracking down on criminal and militant groups, a plan already tested by a drone attack that killed a police officer and the transfer of over a hundred high-profile prisoners to maximum-security facilities. Just before the earthquake struck, his government was also reported to have killed the alleged leader of a leftist militant group.

Now his administration faces a second, very different test. The earthquake’s epicentre sits in Chocó, one of Colombia’s most underdeveloped regions and a long-time hub of criminal and militant activity, where landmines planted by paramilitary groups have made some areas too dangerous for residents to move through freely. It remains unclear how that security situation will complicate rescue and rebuilding efforts in the weeks ahead.

Aid groups are warning that the crisis is far from over. A senior UN worker said food distribution will become critical in the coming days, and at least one indigenous leader living near the epicentre said help had not yet reached his community. More than 1,500 homes have been damaged or destroyed across the affected region.

At Least 30 Dead as 7.4 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Colombia