A SIX-month ceasefire between the state of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN) formally began on Thursday.

The ceasefire agreement, announced on June 9 during talks brokered by the Cuban government in Havana, is part of a process aimed at forging a permanent peace between the government and the country’s last remaining rebel group.

President Gustavo Petro called on the country’s political parties to seize the “historic responsibility” to reach a broad national agreement to achieve peace.

Mr Petro spoke on Thursday during the first ceremonial meeting of the broadly representative National Participation Committee created under the June 9 accord to discuss a lasting solution to the conflict. 

Top officials of both the government and the ELN attended the meeting.

President Petro appealed to the guerilla leaders to leave behind deadly violence, saying that “everyone who really wants to transform this society, in today’s world, must be on the side of life.”

The ceasefire is supposed to suspend attacks between the guerillas and the Colombian police and military throughout the country, and can be extended next January if progress is made during peace negotiations.

As recently as last month, guerillas were blamed for the killing of three Colombian police officers on the border with Venezuela, the kidnapping of an army sergeant and her two children, and several bombings.

The United Nations announced on Wednesday that it will deploy a contingent of 68 observers to monitor the ceasefire. 

Farhan Haq, a spokesman for UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, said that Colombia’s peace efforts “are advancing.”

President Petro, who was sworn in last year as the country’s first left-wing leader, gave new momentum to the country’s peace efforts as he pushed for what he calls a “total peace” that would demobilise all of the country’s remaining rebel groups.