South Sudan foes arrive in Ethiopia for truce talks

AFP/Addis Ababa

South Sudan’s warring parties arrived in Addis Ababa yesterday for talks aimed at ending nearly three weeks of conflict that has left thousands dead, even as fighting continued in the world’s newest nation.

Government and rebel negotiating teams had both arrived in the Ethiopian capital by yesterday evening, a source close to the talks said.

UN special envoy Hilde Johnson said in Juba it was “positive that they are sending delegations”, underscoring the dire need for “reconciliation and healing” after the violence that has forced 200,000 people to flee their homes.

“Negotiations also need to be accompanied by something else, a deeper process that focuses on national reconciliation between the communities.

“We have seen terrible acts of violence in the past two weeks... and as we know, if there is no one held accountable, there is a major risk that the violence can continue,” she added.

Ethiopia, which is brokering the talks, said they would focus on monitoring mechanisms for a ceasefire. The two sides will begin talks today but formal negotiations may not open for several days, the country’s foreign minister said.

Fighting erupted in South Sudan on December 15, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup.

Machar has denied this, in turn accusing the president of conducting a violent purge of his opponents, and the fighting has spread across the country, with the rebels seizing several areas in the oil-rich north.

On Tuesday they recaptured Bor, the capital of Jonglei state and situated just 200km north of the capital Juba.

The government confirmed yesterday it had lost control of Bor, which has changed hands three times in the past two weeks, as fighting reportedly continued in the area.

Thousands of people are feared dead, UN officials say, while close to 200,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes—many seeking refuge with badly overstretched UN peacekeepers.

The conflict has also been marked by an upsurge of ethnic violence pitting members of Kiir’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer community, and the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said that “atrocities are continuing to occur” across the country.

“UNMISS is gravely concerned about mounting evidence of gross violations of international human rights law that have occurred in South Sudan during the past 15 days,” it said in a statement, reporting “extra-judicial killings of civilians and captured soldiers” and the “discovery of large numbers of bodies” in Juba, Bor and Malakal, the main town in oil-producing Upper Nile state.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said residents continue to pour by the thousand out of Jonglei and across the White Nile into Awerial county in neighbouring Lakes state.

“The road to the river is lined with thousands of people, with others waiting for boats to carry them across,” said Francois Moreillon, ICRC deputy head of delegation.