Scientific Presentations

LabTalks­@DCD

Department of Digital and Computational Demography
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), Rostock, Germany, June 04, 2025

11:00 AM: Talk with Enrique Acosta - Weaponizing Kinship: A Demographic Analysis of Bereavement in the Colombian Conflict

Room 400 

Abstract

The Colombian Armed Conflict produced extensive patterns of homicide and enforced disappearance as armed actors employed strategies of terror to assert and consolidate power. Yet family bereavement—one of the most widespread and enduring consequences of such violence—remains critically understudied from a quantitative perspective. This study applies kinship demographic methods to estimate the scale of conflict-attributable bereavement in Colombia across time, with a focus on its population-level prevalence. Using data from the Colombian Truth Commission, adjusted for underreporting, we estimate the number of individuals who have ever experienced the death or enforced disappearance of family members due to conflict-related violence. Results indicate that, by 2018, approximately 7% of Colombians had lost a close family member, while 38% had lost any member of their family. Demographic projections suggest that these effects will persist for decades. The study provides novel insight into the scale, structure, and long-term consequences of kin loss caused by armed conflict. In the Colombian context, it represents a first step toward recognizing that war-induced bereavement was not merely collateral, but a targeted mechanism for dismantling family networks and eroding community cohesion. Our demographic profiling of the bereaved can aid efforts to support survivors and identify victims of enforced disappearance.

About

Enrique Acosta is a demographer and Ramón y Cajal Fellow Research Scientist at the Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED) in Barcelona, Spain. His research focuses on mortality analysis, with a particular emphasis on the demographic impacts of crises, including violence, armed conflict, epidemics, pandemics, and substance abuse. He has developed innovative methodologies for studying Age, Period, and Cohort (APC) effects on mortality and is an expert in measuring excess mortality. Enrique has been a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME-TAG) since March 2023.

Register to Take Part

You would like to attend the Online Seminar Talk? You are very welcome. Please register by writing an e-mail to office-zagheni@demogr.mpg.de.
 

Online Seminar Talk, June, 4th from 11:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. (Rostock time)