The lives of tens of thousands of people have been disrupted by the fighting
BBC News – December 27, 2013
The government of South Sudan has agreed to an immediate end to fighting with rebels but warned its forces would defend themselves if attacked.
Welcoming the commitment from President Salva Kiir’s government, East African states urged rebel leader Riek Machar to do likewise, as fighting continued.
But Mr Machar told BBC News conditions for a truce were not yet in place. He did confirm that two of his allies had been freed from custody but called for the other nine to be released too. The release of the 11 politicians, accused of plotting a coup, has been a key rebel condition for any negotiations.
Recent fighting left at least 1,000 people dead, with fierce new battles reported in the town of Malakal, in oil-rich Upper Nile State.
More than 121,600 people have fled their homes in the world’s newest state, with about 63,000 seeking refuge at UN compounds across the country, according to a statement by the UN.
The first UN reinforcements have arrived since the UN Security Council voted to almost double the number of peacekeepers to 12,500. A detachment of 72 Bangladeshi police officers based in Democratic Republic of Congo arrived by plane in Juba.
Anne Soy reports from Juba: ”Many here are too frightened to venture out of the UN camp’
They are trained in crowd management and security, and will be deployed immediately to help with the growing number of people seeking shelter at UN compounds.
Mr Kiir is engaged in a deadly power struggle with Mr Machar, his former vice-president. Members of Mr Kiir’s Dinka ethnic group and Mr Machar’s Nuer community have both been targeted in the violence
East African regional leaders held talks in the Kenyan capital Nairobi a day after the leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia met Mr Kiir in South Sudan’s capital, Juba.
They said they would not accept a violent overthrow of the government in South Sudan and called on the government and rebels to meet for talks within four days.
‘A conditional offer’
Neither President Kiir nor rebel representatives attended the talks in Nairobi but the government in Juba tweeted to say: “We have agreed in principle to a ceasefire to begin immediately, but our forces are prepared to defend themselves if attacked.”
Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek told regional broadcaster Radio Tamazuj: “It is not a unilateral offer, but it is a conditional offer to be accepted by the other party.”
In Nairobi, South Sudanese Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth said the government had agreed to suspend a planned offensive to recapture Bentiu, the capital of oil-producing Unity State.
“We are not moving on Bentiu as long as the rebel forces abide by the ceasefire,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
In Juba, Mr Kiir reportedly told US envoy Donald Booth he had agreed to release eight out of the 11 detained politicians.
Speaking to BBC World Service by satellite phone “from the bush”, Mr Machar said he was ready for talks but any ceasefire had to be negotiated by delegations from the two sides, with a mechanism agreed to monitor it.
Claiming the allegiance of all rebel forces in South Sudan, he called for the release of all 11 detainees.
Violence has continued through the week with conflicting reports on Friday about the situation in Malakal, capital of Upper Nile State, where some 12,000 people have been sheltering at a UN base.
Both the army and rebels claimed to be in control of the town.
According to Radio Tamazuj, government forces drove rebel soldiers out of the town on Friday, shelling them from tanks.
Dozens of houses were destroyed in the fighting, with a tank shell killing a family of four inside one of them, while three dead bodies were found inside another, the radio said.
In another state, Jonglei, the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) treated gunshot victims who had walked for three days from the war-torn town of Bor in search of safe access to healthcare.
This article posted by Stephen Cook shows that negotiation is the top priority solution.
Displaced families are seen camped inside Pomping UN base near Juba international airport Photo: Reuters
Leaders in Crisis Talks to Broker End of South Sudan Civil War
By Mike Pflanz, East Africa Correspondent, The telegraph UK – December 27, 2013
African leaders held “constructive” emergency talks with South Sudan’s president on Thursday as international mediation efforts to avert civil war were stepped up.
The discussions, in the capital, Juba, took place against a background of fresh fighting in the country’s oil-producing north, where government troops attempted to wrest back control of a key town from rebels.
Hundreds of people have died and tens of thousands have fled their homes in 12 days of clashes between forces loyal to Salva Kiir, the president, and Riek Machar, the former vice-president.
The violence started soon after what Mr Kiir called “an attempted coup” by Mr Machar, which prompted the arrest of several of his key political allies.
Mr Kiir met yesterday with Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kenyan leader, and Hailemariam Desalegn, Ethiopia’s prime minister.
“The meeting with the president…was very constructive and very candid,” Tedros Adhanom, the Ethiopian foreign minister, said after the meeting.
“The issues that we discussed were among others the cessation of hostilities, an immediate start of dialogue to settle the issue politically, the detainees who were suspects of the coup, and the fourth is the humanitarian crisis.”
Beijing said it was sending its special envoy for African affairs to South Sudan.
William Hague has already despatched Sir Simon Gass, political director at the Foreign Office, to Juba, where he was said to be “working closely” with counterparts from the US and Norway.
For his part, Mr Machar said he was ready to open discussions in Addis Ababa, the capital of neighbouring Ethiopia, and added that he had already appointed a mediation team to represent his side. His whereabouts are still unknown.
The multi-pronged diplomatic push came as fierce fighting erupted in Malakal and Bentiu, where rival groups were engaged in street-to-street clashes that raised fears of fresh civilian deaths.
“There is fighting in Malakal. Our forces are in the northern part…and the rebels are on the southern part. We will flush them out,” said Col Philip Aguer, spokesman for the military, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
“The rebels are still controlling Bentiu but SPLA is planning to retake Bentiu soon,” he added.
The two towns are the capitals of South Sudan’s largest oil-producing states. Prices on the global oil market have edged up amid fears that the country’s supplies, already down by a fifth due to the clashes, could be further curtailed.
In Bor, a town the government seized back from rebels on December 24, bodies of soldiers and civilians littered roadsides where vultures picked at the remains. There have been few witness reports from the other towns yet.
Aid agencies are over-stretched trying to reach remote areas on poor roads to the worst-affected areas. The official death toll of 500 people is almost certainly a significant under-estimation.
The United Nations humanitarian coordination office said that aid agencies need close to GBP100 million to save lives amid continuing violence.
Ten of thousands of civilians have also sought protection at UN bases amid a wave of ethnic violence pitting members of Mr Kiir’s Dinka tribe against Mr Machar’s Nuer people.
The UN Security Council voted on Tuesday to send nearly 6,000 extra soldiers and police to South Sudan, nearly doubling their peacekeeping forces to 12,500 troops and 1,323 civilian police.
Openhearted Rebellion 