Humberto de la Calle, fourth from left, the chief of Colombia's government negotiation team with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016. A permanent cease-fire took effect in Colombia on Monday as a result of a peace accord for ending five decades of war between the government and the rebels group. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Humberto de la Calle, fourth from left, the chief of Colombia's government negotiation team with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016. A permanent cease-fire took effect in Colombia on Monday as a result of a peace accord for ending five decades of war between the government and the rebels group. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) Credit: Fernando Vergara

Bogota, Colombia — A permanent cease-fire took effect in Colombia on Monday, a major step in bringing an end to 52 years of bloody combat between the government and the country’s biggest rebel group.

The commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia announced on Sunday that his fighters would cease hostilities beginning at 12:01 a.m. as a result of the peace accord the two sides reached at midweek. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made a similar announcement on Friday, saying the military would halt attacks on the FARC beginning on Monday.

“Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war,” FARC leader Rodrigo Londono said Sunday night from Havana, where peace talks aimed at ending one of the world’s longest-running conflicts have been taking place since 2012.

In areas hit hard by the conflict, the first daybreak in a half century without the threat of combat was celebrated even as residents struggled to get their heads around the 297-page peace accord, copies of which were distributed in national newspapers over the weekend.

In San Vicente del Caguan, Mayor Humberto Sanchez said few people put much faith in the FARC’s promises. The town suffered for years from periodic attacks and extortion kidnappings by the FARC and residents displaced by the violence were unfairly stigmatized as rebel collaborators.

Colombia is expected to hold a national referendum Oct. 2 to give voters the chance to approve the accord, which would all but end political violence that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven more than 5 million people from their homes over five decades.

— The Associated Press