AKIPRESS.COM - The main leftist rebel group in Colombia, the Farc, has ordered all its fighters to observe a ceasefire from midnight local time (05:00 GMT Monday), BBCreports.

The ceasefire brings to an end the group's 52-year-old war, one of the world's longest insurgencies, after four years of peace talks in Cuba.

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

Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, known as Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, gave the order to stop firing.

"Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war,'' Timochenko told journalists. "All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past," he said.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a decree earlier to halt military operations against the Farc, also from midnight.

"One of the country's most painful chapters" was coming to an end, he said in a tweet on Sunday, calling the ceasefire a "historic step".