Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for his "resolute" efforts to end more than five decades of war in his country, despite voters' shock rejection of a historic peace deal. 


The Norwegian Nobel committee rewarded Santos for his "resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end," announced chairwoman Kaci Kullmann Five. 


The deal, signed on September 26 after nearly four years of talks, was supposed to be ratified following an October 2 referendum but voters shot down the agreement, leaving the country teetering between war and peace. 


The result caught most Nobel watchers off-guard, with most experts predicting the referendum would scupper Colombia's chances. 


But the committee said the aim was to encourage peace efforts in the war-torn country, which are now in "real danger" of collapse. 


"We hope that it will encourage all good initiatives and all the parties who could make a difference in the peace process and give Colombia -- finally -- a peace after decades of war," Kullman Five said. 


For his part, Santos said he thought peace was "very, very close" as he accepted the award on behalf of the Colombian people "who have suffered so much." 


In an interview with the Nobel Foundation, Santos added that the award was a "great stimulus" in the quest for peace. 


"The message is that we have to persevere and reach the end of this war. We are very, very close, we just need to push a bit further," Santos was quoted as saying. 


FARC leader Londono said the only award the guerrillas want is peace. 


"The only prize we aspire to is peace with social justice for Colombia, without (right-wing) paramilitary groups, without retaliation (against leftist rebels) or lies. Peace in the streets," he wrote on Twitter

Source: NNA