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Weapons hand-over by Colombia's FARC rebels nearly complete -UN

by Reuters
Tuesday, 27 June 2017 00:08 GMT

In this 2000 archive photo a fighter of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) participates in a parade in the Villa Colombia camp near San Vicente del Caguan,Caqueta province, Colombia. REUTERS/Jose Miguel Gomez

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Hand-over part of a peace deal with the government to end more than a half century of war

BOGOTA, June 26 (Reuters) - Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels have handed over the majority of their weapons to the United Nations, the international organization said on Monday, part of a peace deal with the government to end more than a half century of war.

Under the terms of the deal, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will turn in all guns and other arms to the UN at special demobilization camps around the country.

The UN said 7,132 arms have been stored in secure containers and a small number of weapons will remain in the hands of some rebels for security provision at the camps until they are closed on Aug. 1.

"On that date the mission will have stored all the existing arms in the camps and extracted the containers from the zones," the UN said in a statement. The group has also destroyed armaments kept in 77 FARC storage areas.

The weapons hand-over will be celebrated in a ceremony in Mesetas, in Meta province, on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Andrew Hay)

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