Nobel Peace Prize 2016 wins Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos


The Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 has been awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to end his country's 50-year civil war.

Mr Santos negotiated a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrilla group but the peace deal was rejected by a narrow majority of Colombians when it was put to referendum.

Read : List of Noble Peace Prize Winners (1901-2016)

“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,” said a statement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

One of the five prizes instituted by Alfred Nobel, the Peace Prize is awarded to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Last year’s Peace Prize went to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.”

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 8 million Swedish crowns ($930,000), will be presented in Oslo on December 10.