South Sudan fighting rages as peace efforts drag

Agence France-Presse

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No timeline has been set for the crucial face-to-face talks to begin

PEACE TALKS? nidentified South Sudanese government delegates board an airplane to Addis Ababa, at the airport in Juba, South Sudan, January 2, 2014. File photo by Phillip Dhil/EPA

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Warring parties in South Sudan delayed direct peace talks on Saturday, January 4, dashing hopes of a swift ceasefire to end raging fighting and risks of a slide into all-out civil war.

While top leaders of the government and rebel teams have briefly met directly, the rivals continued Saturday to hold separate talks with negotiators.

No timeline has been set for the crucial face-to-face talks to begin, despite the teams having already spent 3 days in the same luxury hotel in neighboring Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. (READ: South Sudan rivals open ceasefire negotiations: Ethiopia)

“I don’t think there’s anything to indicate that the talks are breaking down,” said Hussein Mar Nyout, former deputy governor of Jonglei state and a rebel delegation member after the delay was announced.

“Mediators are today finishing consultations with the groups, adjusting the agenda… then they will call for the launch of talks.”

Since the conflict erupted on December 15, thousands of people are feared to have been killed in the fighting, pitting army units loyal to President Salva Kiir against a loose alliance of ethnic militia forces and mutinous army commanders nominally headed by his rival, former vice president Riek Machar.

In South Sudan Saturday the army battled to wrest back from rebels the strategic town of Bor, capital of Jonglei, one of the country’s largest states.

“Our forces are still moving towards Bor,” army spokesman Philip Aguer told Agence France-Presse (AFP), dismissing rebel claims they had been marching on the capital Juba.

There were reports of intense battles involving tanks and artillery on the outskirts of Bor, which has already exchanged hands three times since fighting began almost three weeks ago.

The US embassy in South Sudan ordered a further pullout of staff on Friday, January 3, because of the “deteriorating security situation”, although Washington – a key backer of the fledgling state –insisted it remains committed to ending the violence.

The ongoing fighting prompted the top UN aid official in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, to warn that soldiers and rebels must protect civilians and aid workers.

“More people arrived at our bases in Juba… we’re up to 30,000 in the capital alone,” Lanzer said, calling the conflict-zone south of Bor “fluid”.

He announced Saturday that the UN peacekeeping force (UNMISS) would be “reinforcing its presence” in the country.

“Some reinforcements have already arrived,” an UNMISS statement said. “This coming week, additional aircraft are arriving to assist with transport of essential supplies to troops and civilians.”

Key role of regional nations

In Addis Ababa, there appeared to be little sign that the peace process would proceed swiftly.

South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei, part of the delegation to the talks, said the two sides would not meet until an agenda had been drafted by negotiators and agreed by both sides.

Makuei told AFP the two leaders of the delegations had met briefly, but that the teams were now “waiting to hear the way forward” from the negotiators, who are from the regional East African IGAD bloc of nations.

IGAD, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, whose members include the talks host Ethiopia as well as Kenya and Uganda – all strong backers of Kiir’s government – played key roles in pushing forward the 2005 deal that ended Sudan’s two-decade-long civil war.

Uganda has deployed troops inside South Sudan to evacuate its citizens and bolster support for Kiir.

Addis Ababa’s foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti said no timeline had been set for direct talks, adding it “depends on the negotiations.”

Civilians in critical condition

Fighting started in oil-rich but impoverished South Sudan when Kiir accused Machar of attempting a coup

Machar denied this, in turn accusing the president of conducting a violent purge of opponents.

Fighting has spread across the world’s youngest nation, with the rebels seizing several areas in the oil-rich north.

Aid workers have stepped up warnings of a worsening crisis for civilians affected by the conflict in the landlocked country of almost 11 million people.

The violence has forced around 200,000 people to flee their homes and “affected many hundreds of thousands of people indirectly”, the UN’s Lanzer said. Tens of thousand are seeking refuge with badly overstretched UN peacekeepers.

The UN peacekeeping force said this week that atrocities are continuing to occur throughout South Sudan, which won independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of civil war.

The conflict has been marked by an upsurge of ethnic violence pitting members of the Dinka tribe that Kiir comes from against the Nuer people of Machar.

Machar told AFP this week he was not yet ready to agree to an immediate ceasefire nor hold face-to-face talks with Kiir.

Kiir has described the war as “senseless” and has ruled out power-sharing with the rebels. – Rappler.com

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