Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Peace.
The announcement comes less than a week after Colombians rejected a peace deal in a referendum to end a 52-year-long war with the FARC guerrilas.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the award should also be seen “as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process”.
Santos has promised to revive a peace plan even though Colombians, in a referendum on Sunday, narrowly rejected the accord. Many voters reckoned it was too lenient on the FARC guerrillas.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 8 million Swedish crowns (USD 930,000), will be presented in Oslo on December 10.
-With Reuters and AP inputs
