Peace talks to begin for South Sudan
Warring sides meet in Ethiopia as fighting continues at home
JUBA, South Sudan – Negotiators from South Sudan’s two warring sides arrived Wednesday in Ethiopia for peace talks, and a U.N. official urged both forces to bring the world’s newest country “back from the brink.”
Fighting continued in Bor, a gateway city to the capital of Juba, a government official said. Bor is just 75 miles from Juba.
Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, is the center of ethnically based violence stemming from the political rivalry between President Salva Kiir and ousted Vice President Riek Machar, the rebel leader accused of mounting a failed coup attempt.
Kiir declared a state of emergency Wednesday in Jonglei and Unity, two states where rebel forces have gained the upper hand in recent fighting.
Machar said Tuesday he would send his forces from Bor to Juba, but that threat was played down by Hilde Johnson, the U.N. representative in South Sudan.
“I think we need to take quotations with pinches of salt at this point of time,” Johnson said.
“On Jan. 1, the country is at a fork in the road, but it can still be saved from further major escalation of violence,” she said.
Johnson urged Kiir and Machar to use the new talks to move toward peace, adding: “They can still pull the country back from the brink.”
The fighting has killed more than 1,000 people, the U.N. says.
Pro-Machar forces in Bor appear to be taking defensive positions, Johnson said. The fighting in Bor has displaced about 60,000 people, making it the latest humanitarian crisis in South Sudan. The international Red Cross said the road from Bor to the nearby Awerial area was lined with people waiting for boats so they could cross the Nile River.
“There are tens of thousands of people here who literally picked up their kids and a few belongings and fled to the first safe place they could get to, which is Awerial,” said David Nash, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders. “They are camped out under trees with no sanitation and no safe drinking water.”
Two teams of five negotiators each arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and were expected to begin talks later Wednesday, said Getachew Reda, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s prime minister.
The U.N. is “gravely concerned” about mounting evidence of gross violations of international human rights law, including the extra-judicial killings of civilians and captured soldiers, it said Tuesday.
Johnson said that 240 U.N. police are to arrive later Wednesday in South Sudan to help police refugee camps. The U.N. says up to 180,000 people have been displaced internally by the violence, including about 68,000 at U.N. camps.