Twelve members of the Awa Indian tribe in Colombia were killed by gunmen in military fatigues who burst into their house at daybreak on Wednesday and fired indiscriminately, a national indigenous group said, Reuters reported.
Four children were among the dead left by the unidentified gunmen near the jungle town of Tumaco in the southwestern part of the country, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia said in a statement.
Tumaco, in Narino province, is in an area beset by the cocaine trafficking that fuels Colombia's 45-year-old guerrilla war.
Indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations are highly vulnerable to violence as various armed groups battle to control lucrative smuggling routes.