Leaders to hold key S Sudan talks

Rebel and government forces have been fighting since December in the world's newest state

The first face-to-face meeting between South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar since mass violence began in December is due to take place in Ethiopia.

The US says it is not optimistic that Friday's one-day talks will produce an immediate result.

The conflict has left thousands dead and more than one million homeless.

The UN has accused both sides of crimes against humanity, including mass killings, sexual slavery and gang-rape.

"Widespread and systematic" atrocities were carried out in homes, hospitals, mosques, churches and UN compounds, a UN report said on Thursday, calling for those responsible to be held accountable.

An estimated five million people are in need of aid, the UN says.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011 after decades of conflict with the Khartoum government.

A peace deal was signed by the two leaders in January but failed to bring an end to the violence.

"I don't believe that [the two sides] will reach an agreement straight away," US Ambassador to South Sudan Susan Page said during a radio call-in show.

A deal brokered by Kenya on Thursday that will result in treason charges against several South Sudanese politicians being dropped is being seen as a step towards ending the country's brutal civil war

Both President Salva Kiir (R with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon) and rebel leader Riek Macha are under intense diplomatic pressure to reach an agreement

"But if they can agree on a broad-based process on how to resolve the conflict, end the fighting, that would be a step forward."

Ms Page said that people wanted peace and could not understand why the country should have descended into war barely three years since independence.

Peace mediators in Ethiopia confirmed that Mr Machar arrived in Ethiopia on Thursday in preparation for the talks in Addis Ababa.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende said in an interview that the talks between Mr Kiir and Mr Machar should include an outline for an inclusive transitional government.

"Otherwise, there will be consequences that will follow," he said. "We will increase our pressure on the parties. Even tougher measures will follow in the coming weeks if there is no political will to solve the crisis."

Correspondents say more far-reaching international sanctions could be imposed against both sides if there is no discernible progress in reaching an agreement.

The violence began when President Kiir accused sacked deputy Mr Machar, of plotting a coup.

Mr Machar denied the allegation, but then marshalled a rebel army to fight the government.

The battle assumed ethnic overtones, with Mr Machar relying heavily on fighters from his Nuer ethnic group and Mr Kiir from his Dinka community.

The UN has about 8,500 peacekeepers in South Sudan, which became the world's newest state after seceding from Sudan in 2011.

However, they have struggled to contain the conflict, and the government has accused the UN mission of siding with the rebels.

It denies the allegation.

Fighting erupted in the South Sudan capital, Juba, in mid-December. It followed a political power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his ex-deputy Riek Machar. The squabble has taken on an ethnic dimension as politicians' political bases are often ethnic.

Sudan's arid north is mainly home to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in South Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own languages and traditional beliefs, alongside Christianity and Islam.

Both Sudan and the South are reliant on oil revenue, which accounts for 98% of South Sudan's budget. They have fiercely disagreed over how to divide the oil wealth of the former united state - at one time production was shutdown for more than a year. Some 75% of the oil lies in the South but all the pipelines run north.

The two Sudans are very different geographically. The great divide is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. South Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

After gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan is the world's newest country - and one of its poorest. Figures from 2010 show some 69% of households now have access to clean water - up from 48% in 2006. However, just 2% of households have water on the premises.

Just 29% of children attend primary school in South Sudan - however, this is also an improvement on the 16% recorded in 2006. About 32% of primary-age boys attend, while just 25% of girls do. Overall, 64% of children who begin primary school reach the last grade.

Almost 28% of children under the age of five in South Sudan are moderately or severely underweight. This compares with the 33% recorded in 2006. Unity state has the highest proportion of children suffering malnourishment (46%), while Central Equatoria has the lowest (17%).

References

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