AL JAZEERA: Bojaya massacre: After 17 years, victims' remains returned →

Bellavista, Colombia - The small white coffin could be held with two hands. Sitting atop a long, wooden canoe, the box floated down the murky waters of the Atrato river surrounded by dozens of other coffins - white for children, brown for adults.

Elaine Perea Chala was fixated on one. She first wailed, then held her clenched fist against her mouth in an attempt to control her emotions.

"We're bringing back our dead," women, dressed in white in a nearby canoe, sang in a piercing Afro-Colombian chant. Umbrellas peppered the air, shielding those present from the harsh midday sun.

Family members receive loved ones remains near the site of the Bojaya massacre. Photo: Steven Grattan

THE GUARDIAN: Living a daily tragedy': Venezuelans struggle to survive in Colombia →

Axleny Machado has slept on a piece of foam outside Maicao’s main bus terminal since she arrived from Venezuela a year ago. She’s one of thousands who live this way in the arid border city in La Guajira, northern Colombia, which is now struggling with the huge influx of migrants and refugees.

Machado, 24, has a small trolley she rents for 90p a day to sell cigarettes, coffee and sweets to commuters. If lucky, she makes about £4 a day – enough to look after herself. She wants to leave Maicao for another Colombian city and look for opportunities, but money doesn’t permit.

Axleny Machado at the bus terminal in Maicao, where she sleeps on a piece of foam. Photograph: Steven Grattan

AL JAZEERA: 'What you see is what you get': Bogota elects first woman mayor →

Bogota, Colombia - Colombians made history on Sunday by electing a woman mayor in Bogota as they took to the polls in local and regional elections for the first time since the signing of a landmark 2016 peace deal.

Journalist-turned-politician Claudia Lopez, 49, is part of the Green Alliance party. A former senator, she was vice-presidential candidate in the 2018 election.

Claudia Lopez has become the first woman elected mayor of Bogota, the capital of Colombia [Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters]

AL JAZEERA: Colombians vote in first local elections since 2016 peace deal →

Bogota, Colombia - Colombians are heading to the polls to elect regional legislators, provincial governors and mayors nationwide after several months of violence and threats against candidates.

Sunday's elections will be the first at the regional and local level since the signing of the controversial peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016, which ended a bloody 52-year long conflict.

A supporter holds a flag of the candidate for mayor of Bogota, Miguel Uribe [Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters]

EL ESPECTADOR: Cuando coinciden los desastres naturales y el conflicto: nuevo estudio sobre Colombia →

Flor de María Rodríguez llora al pie de los escombros, en donde un día se alzó su casa.

- “Yo le dije al hijo, ‘¿dónde está su papá?’ - "yo no sé, me respondió" - “Y le dije yo ‘¿y el niño?’ -"No sé, me dijo".

Rodríguez, de 62 años, dice que recuerda la noche en la que el deslizamiento de lodo y roca le causó la pérdida de su esposo y de su hogar, entre el fango y el caos del deslizamiento.

Landslide survivor Luz Alba Ortiz at a cemetary in Mocoa, Colombia. March 28, 2019. THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION Theo Hessing

AL JAZEERA: Colombia elections: Candidates face spate of violence →

Caucasia, Colombia - Nine bullet holes dot the front door and window of Jhon Jairo Vasquez's home in the northern town of Caucasia in Colombia's Bajo Cauca region.

Gunmen opened fire on September 11 at 1:30am. It was the day after the 53-year-old local incumbent councillor held a campaign rally, where he spoke against criminal groups and coca production - the base ingredient for cocaine - in the region.

Jhon Jairo Vasquez shows the bullet holes on the front door of his house. He covered them with campaign stickers to not draw to attention to the violent event [Steven Grattan/Al Jazeera]

AL JAZEERA: Ex-Colombian President Uribe to testify in fraud case →

Alvaro Uribe is expected to make history on Tuesday by becoming the first former Colombian president to testify before a court on allegations that could lead to criminal charges.

The former right-wing president, who still holds significant support within the Andean nation, will defend himself in the Supreme Court against allegations he bribed witnesses to recant claims he formed a paramilitary group in the 1990s. 

A supporter dressed as former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe goes on stage during a demonstration in support of the former president in Medellin, Colombia [David Estrada/Reuters]

AL JAZEERA: Amazon countries sign pact to better protect the rainforest →

Leaders of countries home to the vast Amazon signed a pact on Friday aimed at sharing resources and taking greater steps to protect the world's largest tropical rainforest.

The talks, led by Colombian President Ivan Duque, took place in Leticia, the Colombian region home to part of the Amazon rainforest.

Leaders and officials from seven Amazonian countries attended the one-day summit [Steven Grattan/Al Jazeera]

THE NEW HUMANITARIAN: Briefing: Colombia's new challenge to peace →

Since the signing of the landmark 2016 deal, Colombia’s peace process has been beset by challenges, not least a proliferation of armed groups that has seen renewed conflict and soaring displacement. But last week, alarm ratcheted up a level as a group of ex-FARC guerrillas took to YouTube and called for a return to the armed struggle.

: Former senior commanders of FARC, including Iván Márquez (centre), taken from video released 4 September 2019.) (AFP)

REUTERS: Killings, threats and delays disenchant Colombia's ex-FARC →

PONDORES, Colombia (Reuters) - Ricardo Bolanos lays out a camouflage vest, a small battery radio and old rubber boots on his bed, cherished relics from his 45 years as a FARC guerrilla fighter.

Bolanos, 64, who lives at the Pondores reintegration camp in the arid La Guajira region of northeast Colombia, committed to a peace process with the government that he hopes will bring a different life.

Ricardo Bolanos, former rebel of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), shows the clothes he wore when he was in combat, at a reintegration camp in Pondores, Colombia August 2, 2019. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez