COLOMBIA’S government and the nation’s largest remaining guerilla group reached a last-minute deal on Monday to extend a ceasefire that began last year by a further six months.

The National Liberation Army (ELN) also promised to stop kidnapping civilians for ransom.

The latest truce was set to expire today. But in a brief statement issued just minutes before midnight, both sides said that they have extended the ceasefire for a further 180 days.

The statement says the ELN will “temporarily and unilaterally suspend economic detentions” in order to contribute to the ceasefire.

Monday’s statement said that the conditions under which the rebels will cease kidnappings will continue to be discussed in an upcoming round of talks in April.

Otty Patino, Colombia’s peace commissioner, told local radio station Blu: “Many of the peace deals that have been signed in this country have had little impact on the ground.

“It is very important to work on territorial peace.”

Colombia’s government and the ELN have been holding Cuban-brokered peace talks since late 2022 as President Gustavo Petro tries to pacify several armed groups that weren’t part of a 2016 peace deal between the government and the nation’s main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.