SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – The month of June saw 677 murders in El Salvador, more than in any other single month since the end of the country’s civil war.
Miguel Fortin Magana, director of the country’s Legal Medicine Institute, said Friday that June’s total surpassed May’s total of 641 murders.
READ MORE: Homicides in El Salvador reach record as gang violence grows
The first six months of this year have produced 2,965 murders compared with 1,840 murders during the same period last year. Violence has surged as the country’s street gangs renewed their clashes with government forces and among themselves.
A gang truce lasted for more than a year and saw the average daily murders fall to about six. The average in June was 22.6.
El Salvador’s civil war ended in 1992. An estimated 76,000 people died during its 12 years and another 12,000 disappeared.
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