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South Sudan’s warring parties are holding preliminary meetings ahead of the official start of negotiations in a bid to end nearly three weeks of raging conflict which has left thousands feared dead and taken the world’s youngest nation to the brink of all-out civil war, Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry has revealed.
Dina Mufti, a spokesman for the ministry, said yesterday that both sides were holding preliminary meetings in the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, described as necessary to bridge the groups’ differences ahead of direct talks expected to start tomorrow.
Meanwhile, both sides continue to fight in the world’s newest country and reports indicated that the rebels were marching towards the capital Juba.
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from Juba, said residents were growing very nervous and apprehensive as the fighting inched closer to the capital.
The US embassy in Juba said yesterday the state department had ordered a “further drawdown” of embassy personnel because of the “deteriorating security situation.”
An evacuation flight was being arranged for yesterday, the statement read. South Sudan’s government has declared a state of emergency in Unity and Jonglei, two states whose capitals are under rebel control.
On Thursday, the central government warned that rebels loyal to ousted Vice-President Riek Machar were preparing to march to Juba from Bor, the capital of Jonglei state that has been the scene of fierce fighting between government troops and rebels.
South Sudan’s military said on Thursday it had sent reinforcements to Bor, 120 km from Juba. President Salva Kiir insisted the fighting was sparked by a coup attempt mounted by soldiers loyal to Machar on December 15.
But that account has been disputed by some officials of the ruling party who say the violence began when presidential guards from Kiir’s Dinka ethnic group tried to disarm those from the Nuer group of Machar.
From there, violence spread across the country, with forces loyal to Machar defecting and seizing territory from loyalist forces.
South Sudan has been plagued by ethnic tension and a power struggle within the ruling party that escalated after Kiir dismissed Machar as his vice president in July. The rebels back Machar, who is now a fugitive sought by the military.
South Sudan peacefully broke away from Sudan in 2011 following a 2005 peace deal. Before that, the south fought decades of war with Sudan.
The world’s newest country has been hit by violence since mid-December when presidential guards in the capital, Juba, splintered along ethnic lines in clashes that later escalated across the country.
Meanwhile, the top UN aid official in South Sudan warned yesterday that soldiers and rebels must protect civilians and aid workers, or risk worsening a conflict feared to have already left thousands of people dead.
“All parties to the conflict have a responsibility to make sure that civilians are spared from the fighting, do everything possible to restore calm, and ensure that law and order prevails,” said Toby Lanzer, the United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator.
“We call on all parties to facilitate aid agencies’ access to civilians, and to protect and respect humanitarian activities, workers and property at all times.”
Almost three weeks of violence has forced around 200 000 people to flee their homes and “affected many hundreds of thousands of people indirectly”, Lanzer said in a statement.
Some 57 000 are seeking refuge with badly overstretched UN peacekeepers. The UN peacekeeping force said this week “atrocities are continuing to occur” across the country, which won independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of civil war.
It reported “extra-judicial killings of civilians and captured soldiers” and the “discovery of large numbers of bodies” in the capital Juba as well as in the towns of Bor and Malakal.
The largest single site of civilians in need is in Awerial in Lakes state, where some 76 000 people have gathered, many fleeing the heavy fighting in neighbouring Jonglei state.
Oxfam, which like other aid agencies is deploying special teams to cope with the huge demand of people fleeing the fighting, said it “strongly condemns the use of violent force against civilians”.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also demanded “the protection of all civilians must be respected,” in a statement released yesterday.
“I have noted disturbing reports of human rights abuse . . . any perpetrators of systematic or targeted abuses of human rights will be held accountable for their actions.” — AFP
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