Natives from the Wiwa ethnic group stand at the place where lightning hit.

AFP/Bogota

Lightning struck dead 11 Colombians and injured 15 others during a meeting of indigenous Wiwa spiritual leaders in a remote mountainous area in the country’s north, the government said.

The Wiwa, who were gathered at a community in the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range in Magdalena department, were killed by “an electrical charge from a lightning bolt,” the national ombudsman’s office said.

“Tribal leaders were meeting at the moment when this natural phenomenon took place,” the office, charged with protecting Colombia’s human rights, said.

The Wiwa, who were previously misidentified by the office as Kogi people, were carrying out a “spiritual harmonisation ritual,” the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia (ONIC) said.

Wiwa rituals include song and hours-long reflection to ward off negative energy when the group is faced with problems such as climate change or discontent among community members, the ONIC said.

The ONIC, said the group was concerned about the future of the Wiwa because most of those who died were men, which leaves their families vulnerable.

With about 13,000 members, the Wiwa community has been hit particularly hard by forced displacement, murders and disappearances linked to Colombia’s internal armed conflict. In 2009 it was listed by the constitutional court among 36 endangered indigenous groups in the country.

An army battalion operating in the region transported the injured, who were taken to various health facilities in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta, a five-hour drive away.

Most were treated for second- and third-degree burns, according to local police.