After the civil war that claimed 250,000 lives ended with last year’s accord, Lucy Lamble investigates how Colombia’s communities plan to build lasting peace

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Caught in a complex war driven by inequality, narco trafficking and territorial control, most Colombians have never experienced peacetime. A conflict that spanned half a century, and was played out between paramilitaries, the government and Farc rebels, caused a huge death toll and displaced close to 7 million people.

Last November’s peace deal signalled an end to the violence; the question now is how communities can begin to heal the deep rifts caused by the conflict.

Lucy Lamble visits the rural Pacific coast in the west of Colombia, and the two biggest cities in the interior, Bogotá and Medellín, to explore the possible steps to a lasting peace. Her interviewees include Eamon Gilmore, the EU’s peace envoy; Gustavo Villegas, head of security in Medellín; Pablo Bedoya, an academic and activist; Benjamin Cabrera of the Emberá people, who live in the Utría national park in Chocó department; and Josefina Klinger, from the Afro-Colombian community in Nuquí.

Translators: Danitza Erzisnik, Jorge Castilla and Alejandro Jimenez