South Sudan peace talks enter second day

Peace talks between South Sudan's government and rebels entered a second day Saturday in neighboring Ethiopia, but the warring sides have yet to embark on face-to-face negotiations.

No breakthrough came on the first day of talks amid mounting pressure from African and Western powers on South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and the rebel leader, former Vice President Riek Machar, to end the conflict.

Mediators met with representatives of both delegations to try to pin down the issues and set out a framework for the talks, said the head of an eastern African trade bloc mediating the talks.

The proxy talks, which involve negotiators from other African nations, continued Saturday morning and "things are on track," said Mahboub Maalim, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

Key issues at the negotiating table will be the cessation of hostilities and the commencement of political dialogue, he said.

"Things are going in the right direction," he said, adding that it was positive that the two sides had been willing to send delegations so quickly to Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, for the talks.

But even as the two sides' teams negotiate, fighting continues in South Sudan, where three weeks of violence has claimed more than 1,000 lives and forced about 200,000 people from their homes.

The U.S. State Department further reduced its presence in South Sudan on Friday amid concern over the deteriorating security situation.

About 20 U.S. Embassy staff members were flown out of the capital, Juba, aboard a C-130 aircraft manned by U.S. Marines, according to the Defense Department. Other U.S. citizens in the country have been urged to leave.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Friday that "even as we draw down our personnel, we continue to be engaged in and strongly support regional and international efforts to bring the violence to an end."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior officials have been in touch repeatedly with leaders in the region and in South Sudan, Harf said. The U.S. ambassador to South Sudan remains in Juba.

The U.S. special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, Donald Booth, is also in Ethiopia for the peace talks, Harf added.

Heavy fighting

The fighting began in Juba on December 15 but quickly spread across the country, with reports of mass killings soon emerging.

Kiir, from South Sudan's Dinka ethnic group, accused troops loyal to Machar, from the Nuer community, of trying to launch a coup. The two men have long been political rivals, and Kiir dismissed Machar, along with the Cabinet, in July.

Although it began as a political power struggle, it has taken on an ethnic dimension, according to the United Nations mission in South Sudan.

Some of the heaviest fighting over the past three weeks has been in Bor, the strategically important capital city of Jonglei state, to the north of Juba.

Bor's mayor, Majak Nhial, told CNN Friday that he does not believe the talks will work.

"The rebels are using them to buy time while they are moving forces from the north to the south," he said, showing pictures of mangled bodies and destruction purportedly caused by rebels in his town.

The rebel forces include ethnic Nuer from the so-called White Army, a militia loyal to Machar. The youths are known as the White Army for the white powder they use to cover their skin as an insect repellent.

"To get the White Army to reach the capital, they must clear the way and Bor stands in the middle," Nhial said.

The mayor fears that if other tribes join the rebel movement, the country will break apart. "It is going to be a disaster for the country," he said.

Military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer told CNN that South Sudan's army was 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) outside the city of Bor on Friday.

A day earlier, he said that the Sudan People's Liberation Army was trying to stop the rebel forces from advancing on the capital, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) away.

Kiir has declared a state of emergency for Jonglei state and northern Unity state.