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French president visits Colombian rebel camp

François Hollande, on the second leg of a South American tour and who is the first French president to visit Colombia in 30 years, pledged further support for the country's peace process, which it already partly funds, during a visit to a Farc rebel camp.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

French President François Hollande has met leaders of Colombia's largest rebel movement, the Farc, at a rural camp in the west of the country, reports BBC News.

Mr Hollande - accompanied by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos - offered help with de-mining programmes and the search for the disappeared.

France has contributed around 20% of the EU's funding to support Colombia's peace process.

Colombia signed a peace accord last November to end decades of conflict.

President Hollande was the first French head of state to visit Colombia in almost 30 years.

He expressed his support for the peace deal, calling it a model to resolve conflicts around the world.

"The disarming and demobilisation is not reversible," he said at the camp in Caldono, in the department of Cauca.

There he met the head of the United Nations observation mission in Colombia, Jean Arnauld, and a Farc leader, Pablo Catatumbo, who stressed the importance of having international support.

"President François Hollande's visit is of great importance," Mr Catatumbo said.

"Having the commitment of the fifth power in the world, and its contribution to peace [in Colombia] is of great importance.

"The fact that France is accompanying and supporting the peace process is the most important backing that we have received since we signed the peace deal."

Mr Hollande is on a Latin American tour to Chile and Colombia - one of his last foreign trips before stepping down after April-May elections which will choose his successor.

Read more of this report from BBC News.