CALI, Colombia (AFP)-Colombia on Friday promised to counter the threat from "desperate" armed groups after twin guerrilla attacks killed 19 people and deepened the country's worst security crisis in decades.

Presidents from South America’s Amazon nations gathered Friday alongside Indigenous leaders to agree on a joint plan to safeguard the world’s largest rainforest — a vast region seen as crucial to slowing global warming.

At least 18 people died and more than forty were injured on Thursday after two attacks in Colombia attributed to different dissident factions of the former FARC guerrilla group, authorities reported.

Colombia on Friday promised to counter the threat from "desperate" armed groups after twin guerrilla attacks killed 19 people and deepened the country's worst security crisis in decades.

The explosive attack on a military base in Cali and the downing of a police helicopter in Antioquia, both by FARC dissidents, have highlighted the nation’s instability

Dramatic scenes from Colombia show a police helicopter crashing into a mountain after reportedly being struck by a drone, just hours after a deadly car bomb explosion rocked a military air base in Cali.

Seventeen dead, dozens injured, in two terror attacks in Colombia, targeting aviation training school and police helicopter.

A remote island on the Amazon River — now the subject of a territorial dispute between Peru and Colombia — has a single paved road for a main street, which is home to more nightclubs and evangelical churches than any other businesses.