Bogota - At least 40 people died in the latest round of attacks by a right-wing death squad in north-west Colombia, a church human rights group said yesterday. The group said the killings had occurred in at least seven villages since Wednesday in a rural area near Pavarando in Antioquia province, site of a major refugee camp for people displaced by Colombia's long-running internal conflict.
Many of the dead were tossed into a river after being gunned down by members of a 150strong paramilitary group or death squad, reports said, adding that two of the villages had been burned to the ground.