Juba: South Sudan`s government and rebels are set for New Year`s Day peace talks in Ethiopia`s capital, Addis Ababa, to thrash out a ceasefire to end weeks of ethnic bloodletting in the world`s newest state.
Both sides agreed to a ceasefire on Tuesday, mediators said, but fighting between government troops and militias loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar raged in Bor, the capital of the vast Jonglei state and site of an ethnic massacre in 1991.
"I`m worried that the continued fighting in Bor might scupper the start of these talks," said Ethiopian Foreign Minister Dr Tedros Adhanom, who is chairman of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) bloc that is mediating the talks.
"Hopefully both delegations will arrive tomorrow (Wednesday), start the talks and settle this problem once and for all," Adhanom told Reuters by phone from Addis Ababa.
Western and regional powers have pushed both sides to end the fighting that has killed at least 1,000 people, cut South Sudan`s oil output and raised fears of a full-blown civil war in the heart of a fragile region.
It was not clear who controlled Bor on Tuesday night after a day of heavy fighting that started at dawn in the dusty town, which was held by Machar`s rebels for a few days at the start of the conflict. Nearly 200,000 civilians have been displaced.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said ethnic-based atrocities, often carried out against civilians by uniformed men, have taken place throughout the newly independent South Sudan.
"This can lead to a perpetual cycle of violence that can destroy the fabric of the new nation," the United Nations warned in a statement. About 9,000 civilians are seeking refuge at the UN base in Bor.
The clashes erupted on December 15 with fighting among soldiers in Juba. The violence quickly spread to half of the country`s 10 states, dividing the country along the ethnic lines of Machar`s Nuer group and President Salva Kiir`s Dinkas.
Kiir has accused his long-term political rival Machar, who he sacked in July, of starting the fighting in an effort to seize power.
Machar has denied the charge, but he has taken to the bush and has acknowledged leading soldiers battling the government. There have been conflicting reports on whether Machar was in full control of the Nuer "White Army" militia fighting in Bor, though on Tuesday he told the BBC they were part of his forces.
The White House pressured all sides to cease hostilities and allow humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians.
"The United States will deny support and work to apply international pressure to any elements that use force to seize power," White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement on Tuesday. "At the same time, we will hold leaders responsible for the conduct of their forces and work to ensure accountability for atrocities and war crimes."
The fighting has revived memories of the factionalism in the 1990s within the Sudan People`s Liberation Movement, the group that fought Sudan`s army in the north for two decades. Machar led a splinter faction and fighters loyal to him massacred Dinkas in Bor.
