South Sudan rivals under international pressure to end violence

International pressure bore down on Saturday on the two sides in South Sudan’s bloody violence to open peace talks to keep the young nation from sliding into civil war.

East African and Horn of Africa peace brokers gave President Salva Kiir and de facto rebel leader Riek Machar, whom Kiir sacked as vice-president in July, until December 31 to start face-to-face talks and stop two weeks of fighting that is thought to have left thousands dead.

“The communication is to both sides, and I think both sides have heard it loud and clear,” Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti said on Saturday.

His country has spearheaded attempts to end the fierce battles for control over several strategic oil-producing areas notably in the north of the country. The United Nations, Washington and Beijing are also pressing for talks.

“IGAD (the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development pushing for a settlement) has already come out with the condition that the contending parties should negotiate within four days beginning from Friday,” Mufti said.

“So we are awaiting results.”

Both sides have agreed to the idea of negotiations without setting a date.

IGAD spokesmen said President Kiir had expressed willingness for an “immediate” ceasefire on Friday though Machar would not immediately commit to a truce.

The rebel leader said he first wanted a mechanism to monitor any ceasefire as well as the release of his political allies arrested when trouble first broke out, in a satellite telephone interview with the BBC from an undisclosed location.

On Saturday, rebel spokesman Moses Ruai Lat insisted that those close to Machar be released, especially Pagan Amum since the former vice-president had named him to lead the negotiating team.

The conflict, fuelled by an old rivalry between Kiir and Machar, has fanned ethnic differences between Kiir’s Dinka group and Machar’s Nuer clan in the country, which won independence from Sudan, on its northern border, in 2011.

Reports of massacres, rapes and murders have emerged in recent days. The United Nations — whose hard-pressed peacekeepers are to be doubled to more than 12,000 — said one mass grave had been discovered and large numbers of uncollected bodies were seen outside at least one UN base.

The fighting erupted on December 15 after Kiir accused his former vice-president of trying to mount a coup. Machar has denied the allegation and retorted that Kiir was trying to eliminate his rivals.

Rebels quickly took control of a few key regional cities including Bentiu, in the northern oil-producing state of Unity, as well as Bor, the capital of eastern Jonglei state which was recaptured by the army on Tuesday.

On Saturday, South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer said that all was calm in the main flashpoint areas of recent days, including Malakal, capital of the oil-rich northeastern Upper Nile state, in Bor and in Unity state where the army said it pushed back rebel attacks on Friday.

Aguer insisted his troops would implement any truce agreed by the government and rebels but vowed they would riposte if attacked.

“Definitely if you are attacked you will have to respond,” the army spokesman said.

The death toll nationwide is said to be several thousand. The United Nations has said more than 120,000 residents have been displaced since the conflict started.

A source at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the Sudanese capital Khartoum said that the agency was investigating reports that hundreds of South Sudanese have fled across the border into neighbouring Sudan.

Pressure is also coming from other countries to halt the fighting, including the United States — which supported South Sudan’s independence and has been its main economic backer. Washington again this week threatened to cut aid if the Kiir government is toppled.