Colombia’s ELN Announces Unilateral 10‑Day Christmas Ceasefire

Buenos Aires, Dec 22, (dpa/GNA) – Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) guerilla group on Sunday, declared a temporary unilateral ceasefire for 10 days from Christmas Eve.

The ELN leadership said its forces would refrain from attacks on Colombia’s military and police between December 24 and January 3.

The ELN has carried out around 60 attacks across the country over recent days, killing dozens of people in the major offensive. In the worst attack on a military base in the Cesar Department in north-eastern Colombia, seven soldiers were killed and a further 30 injured.

A 52-year civil war raged in the country between leftist paramilitary groups and the Colombian army. Some 220,000 people are estimated to have died in the violence, and millions have been displaced.

Since a 2016 peace deal between the government and the largest rebel group, the FARC, the ELN is the last large active guerilla organization in the country.

The ELN, which describes itself as Marxist-Leninist, has around 5,000 fighters and is implicated in abductions, drug dealing and extortion. Peace talks with the government have been suspended as the ELN has repeatedly breached ceasefire agreements.