A woman watches a news program announcing the dissolution of armed Basque separatists ETA due for the first week of May, according to local television station ETB, in Guernica Thomson Reuters MADRID (Reuters) - The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, the public television station ETB reported on Wednesday night. ETA killed more than 850 people during the campaign which lasted almost half a century and was aimed at creating a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France. The group declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over weapons caches in April 2017, bringing a close to Western Europe's last major armed insurgency. A Basque newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA's leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer. EPA-EFE/FILE/Ballesteros /POOL

Basque separatist group ETA is set to announce its dissolution in the first week of May at an event in the French city of Bayonne, sources told EFE. ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) was founded in 1959 and arose from anger and frustration among Basques, who have their own language and culture, from political repression under General Francisco Franco. The Basque campaign and the separatist movement has petered out partly due to a rejection of ETA's violent tactics but has also lost support after the Basque region was granted a greater fiscal autonomy in 1981.
Basque separatist group ETA announces its dissolution in May.