Txetx Etcheverry, an activist with environmental campaign group Bizi – which favours Basque independence – told the newspaper: “Eta has handed us responsibility for the disarmament of its arsenal and, as of the evening of April 8, Eta will have completely handed over its weapons.”

Etcheverry said the disarmament should, if possible, be completed before France’s presidential election, the first round of which is set for 23 April. We can’t imagine five more years of inaction,” Etcheverry said, pledging that “ETA will be disarmed by midnight on April 8.”

ETA, which in Basque stands for “Basque Country and Freedom,” was founded in 1959 during the Spanish dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. The group is blamed for the deaths of 829 people in a four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque homeland, which straddles northern Spain and southwestern France. On Friday, government spokesman Íñigo Méndez de Vigo reacted coolly to the news, saying that “Eta has to do two things: disarm and disband”.
In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announces that it will fully disarm by April 8, 2017.