#child-casualties

#child-casualties

"I actually thought it was my balloons popping. It was gunshots," said Patrice Williams, the birthday girl's mother. Her daughter, who turned two years old, was uninjured. But Williams told The Associated Press on Monday that her sister, a cousin and three of her friends were shot in the burst of violence Saturday evening in Stockton. Three children ages 8, 9 and 14 and a 21-year-old were killed in the hall where at least 100 people were gathered, San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow said.

The recent airstrike on a FARC dissident camp led by Ivan Mordisco, in which seven minors were killed in the Guaviare department of the Amazon, has placed Colombian President Petro at the center of an intense political debate. He has been particularly criticized for his shift from zero tolerance for airstrikes killing minors when he was in the opposition, to justifying them now that he is in office. However, he is not the only politician in a difficult position over this humanitarian tragedy.