United Nations and Colombian Government launched trust fund for peacebuilding needs

The United Nations (UN) and the Government of Colombia on 17 February 2016 announced the launch of a new multi-partner trust fund in Bogota to respond to stabilization and peacebuilding needs.

The Fund will be managed by the Government and the UN, in close cooperation with interested donors. The Fund will especially support conflict areas in the lead-up to and aftermath of possible peace agreements with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP).

Norway, Sweden and the UN’s own Peacebuilding Fund are the first contributors, helping the new fund kick off with an initial 8 million US dollars.

Earlier on 25 January 2016, the Security Council approved a new UN political mission to monitor disarmament should a final agreement to end Latin America’s longest armed conflict be reached. The FARC rebels and the Government have been in talks seeking to end the 51-year conflict that has left nearly a quarter of a million victims.

About FARC-EP

• The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army is a guerrilla movement involved in the continuing Colombian armed conflict since 1964.

• It has been known to employ a variety of military tactics in addition to more unconventional methods, including terrorism.

• The FARC–EP claims to be an army of peasant Marxist–Leninists with a political platform of agrarianism and anti-imperialism.

• In 1964, the FARC–EP was established as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party after the Colombian military attacked rural communist enclaves in the aftermath of The Violence.

Now get latest Current Affairs on mobile, Download # 1  Current Affairs App