Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a surprise after Colombians voted “No” to an agreement he signed with Marxist rebels to end 52 years of war.
Santos has promised to revive a peace plan even though Colombians, in a referendum on Sunday, narrowly rejected the accord. Many voters reckoned it was too lenient on the FARC guerrillas.
Last year, Tunisian civil society groups won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to save the only democracy that emerged from the Arab Spring, offering the country symbolic support after it was shaken by a wave of militant attacks.
The groups included the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.
The prize is a gold medal, a diploma and a cheque for eight million Swedish kronor (around 860,000 euros/$950,000) that will be handed out at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of prize creator Alfred Nobel, a Swedish philanthropist and scientist.