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The majority of the Wayuu live in La Guajira, a poor region in the north of the country Image caption: The majority of the Wayuu live in La Guajira, a poor region in the north of the country

The pandemic is putting the lives of indigenous Wayuu people in Colombia in danger and is putting children at risk of malnutrition, according to Human Rights Watch.

With a population of at least 270,000, the Wayuu are Colombia’s largest group of indigenous people. The majority of the Wayuu live in La Guajira, a poor region in the north of the country.

Lockdown measures - in particular travel restrictions - have seriously limited access to food for Wayuu, HRW said in a report with the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.

“Rural indigenous communities in La Guajira can’t get sufficient food or enough water for basic hygiene, such as handwashing, and access to health care and information is very poor,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

“This situation has for years contributed to one of the highest levels of child malnutrition in Colombia, and it raises critical concerns in the current context of Covid-19.”

Indigenous peoples tend to be at higher risk from emerging infectious diseases and Covid-19 is no exception.

Amazonian indigenous groups are particularly vulnerable to dying from Covid-19 because they often live days away from professional medical help.

As of 28 July , the disease had killed 1,108 indigenous people and there had been 27,517 recorded cases, with the majority in Brazil, according to data published by Red Eclesial Panamazonia.