Colombia FARC rebels announce month-long unilateral ceasefire

HAVANA, July 9 (UPI) -- Colombia's left-wing FARC rebel group has announced a month-long unilateral cease-fire as part of ongoing peace negotiations in Havana, Cuba.

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, hopes the cease-fire will lead to an eventual truce. The cease-fire begins July 20, chief FARC negotiator Ivan Marquez said Wednesday.

Peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC began in November 2012. The new cease-fire would be the sixth between the warring sides.

The four countries involved in facilitating peace talks, Cuba, Norway, Chile and Venezuela, urged for the "rapid de-escalation of the armed conflict" on Tuesday.

The last established cease-fire began in December but deteriorated in April after 11 Colombian soldiers were killed in an attack. The government responded by resuming aerial bombings of rebel positions.

Dozens more rebels and soldiers have died since the recent escalation of violence after the FARC suspended the former unilateral cease-fire in May.

"We came to Cuba to reach a peace agreement, to end a war that has lasted for more than half a century," FARC said in a statement. "Nothing could please us more than to end definitively with the confrontation, the violence, new victims and the suffering of the Colombian people as a result of the conflict."

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos welcomed the move by the rebel guerrilla group, but stated FARC needs to do more.

Valoramos gesto de cese unilateral de fuego de las FARC pero se necesita más, sobretodo compromisos concretos para acelerar negociaciones.

— Juan Manuel Santos (@JuanManSantos) July 8, 2015

"We appreciate the gesture of a unilateral ceasefire by the FARC but more is needed, especially concrete commitments to accelerate the negotiations," Santos said on Twitter.

More than 220,000 people have died in the Colombian conflict since the FARC's founding in 1964. The militant rebel group has been involved in drug-trafficking, kidnapping and other illicit activity to fund its insurgency campaign.