Situated on the border with Venezuela, Cucuta is now a temporary home to 27,000 of the people displaced in the current spate of violence.
In response to the conflict, the General Santander Stadium has been designated as a humanitarian aid centre, providing food, clothing and basic medical care to the displaced.
Beneath the concrete arches on the outside of the stadium, lines of people await assistance, some leaning against the metal bars that form barriers along the perimeter. The mood is tense.
“Right now they are still fighting, removing people, going house to house,” a 21-year-old man from Tibu told Al Jazeera, his youthful face peering out from a curtain of dark hair.
The braces on his teeth flashed in the midday sun. “They’ve already killed many of our friends.”
The local government and nonprofits in Cucuta are already feeling the strain of the growing crisis.
“We haven’t seen this kind of displacement before,” said Fernando Sandoval Sanchez, the director of the Colombian Civil Defense, a disaster-relief agency, for the department of Norte de Santander. “So many people taken from their homes, from their land, from their belongings.”
The mayor’s office says around 280 displaced people are currently staying in a shelter a short distance from Cucuta in Villa del Rosario, while 1,330 more are housed in local hotels — a costly short-term solution financed by the local government.
But many more are left to find housing on their own, with little support outside their own finances. Some stay with family. Others have considered returning to Catatumbo.
A few hotels have responded to the increased demand by raising their prices, making a profit from the crisis.
“The budget is already running out,” says Lusestella Maldonado, a volunteer for the mayor’s office who is part of the team coordinating the humanitarian response at the stadium.
“Obviously we don’t have many resources, and every day we see more and more displacement. The problem is growing.”
The exodus from the largely rural Catatumbo has also devastated the region’s economy.
Catatumbo’s farmers have been forced to leave their crops and livestock, creating food shortages. That has led locals to also seek support, increasing the burden on nonprofits and government services.
The mounting pressure on humanitarian aid has created uncertainty for the displaced population from Catatumbo.
“I don’t know until when we will receive help here,” said the 26-year-old mother. “We are just waiting.”
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