South Sudan: Warring Factions Set For Talks

South Sudan's warring parties are gathering in Ethiopia for peace talks as the UN warns of continuing atrocities across the country.

Government and rebel negotiating teams are preparing to sit down at a luxury hotel in Addis Ababa, although it is unclear when meetings will start and what form they will take.

Thousands of people are feared to have been killed in the fighting, which has pitched army units loyal to President Salva Kiir against a loose alliance of ethnic militia forces and mutinous army commanders loyal to ex-vice president Riek Machar.

Fighting broke out on December 15 when Mr Kiir said there had been an attempted coup by his deputy, who in turn accused the president of conducting a violent purge of his opponents.

The fighting has since spread across the country, with the rebels seizing several areas in the oil-rich north.

The decision by the two sides to send delegations for initial ceasefire talks has been widely welcomed.

UN special envoy Hilde Johnson said it highlighted the need for "reconciliation and healing" after the violence.

She said: "We have seen terrible acts of violence in the past two weeks ... and as we know, if there is no one held accountable, there is a major risk that the violence can continue."

Conditions are deteriorating in Bor, the capital of Jonglei state that has changed hands three times since the fighting erupted and was seized again by the rebels on New Year's Eve.

The UN's South Sudan humanitarian chief Toby Lanzer warned that civilians in the town face "an increasingly dire situation - water, food and medicines are running out, sanitary conditions are worsening".

Close to 200,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes, many seeking refuge with badly overstretched UN peacekeepers.

The conflict has also been marked by an upsurge of ethnic violence pitting members of  Mr Kiir's Dinka tribe against Mr Machar's Nuer community.

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said that "atrocities are continuing to occur" across the country.

UNMISS reported "extra-judicial killings of civilians and captured soldiers" and the "discovery of large numbers of bodies" in Juba, Bor and Malakal, the main town in the oil-producing Upper Nile state.

Mr Kiir has described the war as "senseless", but has ruled out power-sharing with the rebels.

He also rejected rebel demands that a number of their loyalists, arrested shortly after the violence started, be released.

He said in an interview: "If you want power, you don't rebel so that you are awarded with the power."

South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of civil war.

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