BOGOTA: 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 cease fire 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.