Image copyright AFP Image caption The Farc has been fighting since 1964 in a conflict that has displaced millions

A ceasefire has come into effect in Colombia between the main leftist rebel group and the government, ending one of the world's longest insurgencies.

The ceasefire at midnight local time (05:00 GMT Monday) came after four years of peace talks in Cuba between the Farc and the government.

The final agreement on ending the 52-year-old war will be signed next month.

Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, known as Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, gave the order to stop firing.

"Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war,'' Timochenko told journalists. "All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past," he said.

Image copyright PA Image caption Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, better known under his alias of Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, announced the start of the ceasefire in Havana

Image copyright Twitter

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a decree earlier to halt military operations against the Farc, also from midnight.

"One of the country's most painful chapters" was coming to an end, he said in a tweet on Sunday, calling the ceasefire a "historic step".

Crucial milestone: Analysis by Will Grant, BBC News, Havana

Image copyright Reuters

In one sense, the Farc's announcement of a total ceasefire is purely procedural. In another, it is a historic moment towards a lasting peace. It is procedural in that the bilateral ceasefire had already been agreed and there has in effect been a truce on the ground for several months.

But the definitive ceasefire was supposed to come into force the day after the final peace agreement was signed by President Santos and the leader of the Farc, Timoleon Jimenez - an event expected in Cartagena at the end of September. This moves that forward in a gesture of goodwill on both sides.

It is historic in that - finally - it brings to an end more than 50 years of conflict which left an estimated 260,000 people dead and millions internally displaced. These milestones are crucial for the Colombian peace process.

Perhaps more important is what comes next: a popular vote on the agreement in early October. That will decide the fate of the years of negotiation in Havana and, in the process, the political futures of both President Santos and the Farc.

A peace agreement was announced on Wednesday in Havana, at the peace talks.

Farc fighters will ratify the accord in September and a Colombian popular vote on the agreement will follow on 2 October.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez reflects on a peace deal after 52 years of conflict

Under the terms of the agreement, the Farc (the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) will give up its armed struggle and join the legal political process.

In March Colombia announced the start of peace negotiations with the second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), but the rebels have yet to meet the government's precondition of releasing all of their hostages and stop all kidnapping.

The Farc's 52-year fight

Image copyright Reuters

1964: Set up as armed wing of Communist Party

2002: At its height, with an army of 20,000 fighters controlling up to a third of the country

2008: The group's worst year, when it suffered a series of bitter defeats

2012: Start of peace talks in Havana

2016: Definitive ceasefire

Are you in Colombia? Can the ceasefire be maintained? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences.

If you are willing to speak further to a BBC journalist, please include a contact telephone number.

Email your pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk, upload them here, tweet them to @BBC_HaveYourSay or text 61124. If you are outside the UK, send them to the international number +44 7624 800 100.

Or WhatsApp us on +44 7525 900971

Read our terms and conditions.</s>BOGOTA: An historic ceasefire came into effect in Colombia, ending a 52-year war between FARC rebels and the government and taking a major step toward ending a conflict that has claimed more than 250,000 lives.

The full ceasefire ordered by President Juan Manuel Santos and the head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Timoleon Jimenez, began at midnight (0500 GMT).

“This August 29 a new phase of history begins for Colombia. We silenced the guns. THE WAR WITH THE FARC IS OVER!” Santos wrote on Twitter one minute later.

A message from the official FARC account at the same time was more restrained: “From this moment on the bilateral and definitive ceasefire begins.”

The government’s chief peace negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, grew visibly emotional at a press conference describing how church bells and sirens had rung out in some of the areas hardest hit by the conflict.

“It was a war against the civilian population, 80 percent of those who died were civilians,” he said.

Sergio Jaramillo, the country’s high commissioner for peace, added: “A lot of human lives are going to be saved with this giant step we are taking today.”

“The morning of peace has dawned,” tweeted the FARC’s chief negotiator, Ivan Marquez.

The ceasefire is the first in which both sides are committed to a definite end to the fighting.

“The ceasefire is really one more seal on the end of the conflict,” said Carlos Alfonso Velazquez, a security expert at the University of La Sabana.

The conflict began in 1964 with the launch of the FARC, a Marxist guerrilla group born out of a peasant uprising. It has left 260,000 dead, 45,000 missing and 6.9 million uprooted from their homes.

To end the war with the FARC for good, Colombians must now vote in an October 2 referendum on the peace accord hammered out in nearly four years of talks in Cuba.

Santos said the exact question that will be put to voters in the referendum would be announced “in the coming days”.

“We are on the verge of perhaps the most important political decision of our lives,” he said in a speech on Saturday.

Colombia’s Congress on Monday approved the plan to call a referendum.

Opinion polls show Colombians are divided ahead of the vote.

Santos’s top rival, former president Alvaro Uribe, is leading a campaign to vote “no” to the peace deal.

“This is not an agreement: this is the state submitting to the proposals of the narco-terrorist group FARC,” Uribe said at a university forum.

He has said a special justice system envisaged for crimes committed during the conflict would give FARC fighters impunity.

“I don’t think we can believe them,” said Felipe Giraldo, a 25-year-old unemployed man in Bogota.

Others have a high personal stake in the vote.

Adelaida Bermudez, 50, hopes it will bring home her daughter, who joined the FARC nine years ago.

“I hope we’ll have peace… so the children come home,” she said in Gaitania, in the central region where the FARC was born.

Santos and Jimenez are due to sign the peace agreement sometime between September 20 and 30 — possibly at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin.

The end of hostilities will be followed by a six-month demobilization process.

Starting Monday, the FARC’s estimated 7,500 fighters are to go to collection points to surrender their weapons under UN supervision.

Guerrillas who refuse to demobilize and disarm “will be pursued with all the strength of the state forces,” Santos told El Espectador newspaper.

Before the demobilization, the FARC will convene its leaders and troops one last time before transforming into “a legal political movement,” according to a statement published on Saturday.

The territorial and ideological conflict has drawn in various left- and right-wing armed groups and gangs.

Efforts to launch peace talks with a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), have yet to bear fruit.

But with the FARC ordering a ceasefire, the conflict appears to be reaching an end.

“We wish to express our clear and definite will for reconciliation,” said Jimenez, known by the nom de guerre Timochenko, in Havana.

“Today more than ever we regret that so much death and pain has been caused by the war. Today more than ever we wish to embrace (the military and police) as compatriots and start to work together for a new Colombia.” AFP</s>The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Sunday issued the order for its fighters to observe the ceasefire from Monday midnight.

A historic midnight ceasefire on Sunday is set to end a 52-year-old war between the Colombian state and FARC rebels.

Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have died since 1964 as rebel armies and gangs battled in the jungles in what is considered Latin America's last major civil armed conflict.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Sunday issued the order for its fighters to observe the ceasefire from midnight (0500 GMT Monday).

“I order all our commanders and units and each one of our combatants to definitively cease fire and hostilities against the Colombian state from midnight tonight” top FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez said in a declaration before the media in Cuba, where peace talks were held.

On the government side, President Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday ordered the Colombian national armed forces to halt military operations against the FARC.

“We noted with excitement the president's order to the army. Consequently we are proceeding to give the same order to our troops,” Jimenez said Sunday, surrounded by FARC commanders in white shirts.

Santos wrote on Twitter: “The end of the conflict has arrived!”

The FARC declared a unilateral ceasefire in July 2015. But Sunday night's ceasefire is the first in which both sides have committed to a definitive end to the fighting.

“The ceasefire is really one more seal on the end of the conflict. It is the test of fire,” said Carlos Alfonso Velazquez, a security expert at the University of La Sabana.

Santos and Timochenko are due to sign a final, full peace agreement sometime between September 20 and 26.

The ceasefire and definitive end of hostilities will be followed by a six-month demobilization process.

From Monday, the FARC's estimated 7,500 fighters will start heading to collection points to give up their weapons under UN supervision.

Guerrillas who refuse to demobilize and disarm "will be pursued with all the strength of the state forces," Santos told El Espectador newspaper.

Before the demobilization, the FARC will convene its leaders and troops one last time before transforming into “a legal political movement,” according to a statement published on Saturday.

On October 2, Colombians will go to the polls to cast ballots in a referendum that Santos hopes will endorse the peace agreement.

“A victory for the 'Yes' vote will be a mandate from citizens for future governments,” Santos was quoting as saying by El Espectador.

“The plebiscite will grant the political legitimacy that is needed.”

He said the exact question that will be posed to voters in the referendum would be announced “in the coming days.”

“We are on the verge of perhaps the most important political decision of our lives,” Santos said in a speech on Saturday.

The territorial and ideological conflict has drawn in various left- and right-wing armed groups and gangs.

It has left some 260,000 dead, 45,000 missing and 6.9 million people uprooted from their homes.

Efforts to launch peace talks with a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army, have yet to bear fruit.

But with the country's biggest rebel group, the FARC, ordering a definitive ceasefire, the conflict appears to be reaching an end.

“To the soldiers, naval personnel and air force pilots, police and state security and intelligence agencies, we wish to express our clear and definite will for reconciliation,” said Jimenez, known by the nom-de-guerre Timochenko, in Havana.

“Rivalries and resentment must remain in the past. Today more than ever we regret that so much death and pain has been caused by the war. Today more than ever we wish to embrace them as compatriots and start to work together for a new Colombia.” © AFP, 2016</s>HAVANA — The commander of Colombia’s biggest rebel movement said Sunday its fighters will permanently cease hostilities with the government beginning with the first minute of Monday, as a result of their peace accord ending one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.

Rodrigo Londono, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, made the announcement in Havana, where the two sides negotiated for four years before announcing the peace deal Wednesday.

“Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war,” said Londono, who also known as Timochenko. “All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past.” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced on Friday that his military would cease attacks on the FARC beginning Monday.

Colombia is expected to hold a national referendum Oct. 2 to give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven more than 5 million people from their homes

Top FARC commanders are planning to gather one final time in mid-September to ratify the accord.

FARC guerrillas are supposed to turn over their weapons within six months after the deal is formally signed. In return, the FARC’s still unnamed future political movement will be given a minimum 10 congressional seats—five in the lower house, five in the Senate—for two legislative periods.

In addition, 16 lower house seats will be created for grassroots activists in rural areas traditionally neglected by the state and in which existing political parties will be banned from running candidates. Critics of the peace process contend that will further boost the rebels’ post-conflict political power.

After 2026, both arrangements would end and the former rebels would have to demonstrate their political strength at the ballot box.

Not all hostilities are ending under the deal with the FARC. The much-smaller National Liberation Army remains active in Colombia, although it is pursuing its own peace deal with the government.</s>A permanent ceasefire is taking effect in Colombia, in the latest step to bring an end to 52 years of bloody combat between the government and the country’s biggest rebel group.

The commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) announced on Sunday that his fighters would cease hostilities beginning at 12.01am on Monday. as a result of the peace deal reached by the two sides during the week.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos made a similar announcement on Friday, saying the military would halt attacks on the Farc beginning on Monday.

Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timochenko, made his announcement in Havana, Cuba, where rebel and government negotiators talked for four years to reach the deal on ending one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.

“Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war,” he said. “All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past.”

Colombia is expected to hold a national referendum on October 2nd to give voters the chance to approve the accord, which would end political violence that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven more than five million people from their homes over five decades.

Polls say most Colombians loathe the rebel group but are likely to endorse the deal anyway.

Top Farc commanders are planning to gather one final time in mid-September to ratify the deal.

Under the 297-page accord, Farc guerrillas are supposed to turn over their weapons within six months after the deal is formally signed. In return, the Farc’s still unnamed future political movement will be given a minimum 10 congressional seats — five in the lower house, five in the senate — for two legislative periods.

In addition, 16 lower house seats will be created for grassroots activists in rural areas traditionally neglected by the state and in which existing political parties will be banned from running candidates.

But critics of the peace process say that will further boost the rebels’ post-conflict political power.

After 2026, both arrangements would end and the former rebels would have to demonstrate their political strength at the ballot box.

Not all hostilities are ending under the deal with the Farc. The much-smaller National Liberation Army remains active in Colombia, although it is pursuing its own peace deal with the government.</s>HAVANA (AP) - The commander of Colombia’s biggest rebel movement said Sunday its fighters will permanently cease hostilities with the government beginning with the first minute of Monday, as a result of their peace accord ending one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.

Rodrigo Londono, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), made the announcement in Havana, where the two sides negotiated for four years before announcing the peace deal Wednesday.

“Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war,” said Londono, who is also known as Timoshenko. “All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past.”

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced on Friday that his military would cease attacks on the FARC beginning Monday.

Colombia is expected to hold a national referendum Oct. 2 to give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven more than 5 million people from their homes

After the agreement is signed, FARC guerrillas are supposed to begin handing their weapons over to United Nations-sponsored monitors.
The FARC orders all its fighters to observe a ceasefire from midnight local time (Monday 1 a.m. EDT).