COLOMBIA’S military has struck a blow against rebel splinter groups that rejected a 2016 peace deal, President Ivan Duque has said as he announced one of their senior commanders had been “neutralised.”

In a statement on Monday, he said that Euclides Espana, alias Jhonier, had been killed in a military and police joint operation in Tacueyo municipality, in the department of Cauca.

“This is one of the greatest blows that has been dealt the Farc dissidents,” Mr Duque insisted. “And we are talking about a criminal with more than 25 years of murderous and criminal record.”

He was referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which laid down its arms following a 2016 peace deal that also led to some of its former guerilla fighters entering parliament.

Farc has since changed its name to Comunes and is committed to peace and electoral politics. 

It has abandoned an armed struggle against the Colombian government in which more than 220,000 people died and over five million were forced from their homes.

But dissident groups, several of which are led by Gentil Duarte and Ivan Mordisco, rejected the deal and have continued the guerilla war and attempted to unite the rebels.

Jhonier was said to be the commander of several of the groups under their control.

An alliance between the 10th Front of Farc dissidents and the National Liberation Army appears to have broken, with fighting between the two groups reportedly causing 24 deaths in the east of Colombia earlier this month.

Hundreds of social leaders and peace signatories have been killed by Colombian armed forces since the peace deal was signed, leading to Mr Duque’s government being accused of crimes against humanity. 

More than 60 people were killed as police and security forces launched a violent clampdown on protests and strikes that flared up again in May last year.

Senator Ivan Cepeda Castro filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court with the support of human rights groups in Colombia.