Colombia’s government is reactivating arrest orders for the top leadership of the nation’s largest rebel group

Colombia has suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, for second time in less than a year after blaming the rebel group for violence that has been affecting a northeastern region of the country in recent days.

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 unusually deadly violence delivers a devastating blow to the “total peace” program of the country’s first leftist president, Gustavo Petro.

Colombia's attorney general's office on Wednesday reissued arrest warrants for leaders of the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, who had been participating in peace talks, as forced displacement caused by ELN attacks rose to 32,

Colombia called on neighboring Venezuela Thursday to help tackle guerrillas blamed for a week of bloody violence that has displaced 40,000 people in the lawless border region.

At least 80 civilians have been killed amid a surge of violence between rival rebel groups.