Colombia's FARC rebel force has formally ordered its fighters to observe a ceasefire which has come into force today.

The ceasefire ends the leftist rebel group's 52-year-old war against the Colombian state and follows four years of peace talks in Cuba.

The Farc leader, known as Timochenko, said: "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."

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The final peace agreement will be signed in the next few weeks.

After the agreement is signed, FARC guerrillas are supposed to begin handing their weapons over to UN-sponsored monitors.


More than 220,000 people were killed in the conflict, tens of thousands disappeared and millions fled their homes to escape the violence.

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Colombia's government announced on Thursday that it had agreed a peace deal with leftist rebels.

The announcement by Timochenko, also known as Rodrigo Londono, details the rebel's plans to lay down their arms with the first minute of Monday.

"Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war," said Timochenko on Sunday night.

"All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past."