E.Africa Leaders Tell S. Sudan Rivals to Return to 'Reason'
East African leaders warned South Sudan's warring rivals Thursday they must "come to their senses" to end almost 11 months of bloodshed amid renewed threats of international sanctions.
"There appears to be little appetite for peace, while the people of South Sudan continue bearing the full brunt of conflict," Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalgen said at a summit of regional leaders pushing for a peace deal.
"That the patience of the international community is wearing thin is hopefully not lost on both sides," Hailemariam told both South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar in the Ethiopian capital.
The meeting of six regional leaders -- as well as Kiir and Machar -- follows fresh U.N. Security Council warnings this week of possible sanctions to stem violence that has left thousands dead and forced almost two million from their homes.
War broke out in December, when Kiir accused his sacked deputy Riek Machar of trying to stage a coup, with the violence broadening into an ethnic conflict and now including more than 20 different armed groups.
Repeated peace efforts and ceasefire deals have failed.
"We will use all the influence we can to bring the two sides back to reason," Hailemariam, warning them of "the futility of trying to fight conflict out."
Kiir and rebel chief Machar met last month in Tanzania, shaking hands and accepting mutual responsibility for the war, which has been marked by widespread human rights abuses and atrocities by both sides. There has since been fierce fighting in several areas.
It was their first meeting since they signed a ceasefire in August, which, like three previous agreements, swiftly collapsed.
Fierce fighting in Unity and Upper Nile states last month marked an end to a brief lull in hostilities and coincides with the end of the rainy season, which made many roads impassable, raising fears of a looming escalation in the war.
"We owe it to the people of South Sudan to once again urge our brothers to put their people first, to stop the bloodshed and the degeneration of the humanitarian situation in their country," African Union chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said at the meeting, which also included the leaders of Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.
All are members of east Africa's IGAD bloc, which is mediating currently stalled peace talks.
Hailemariam, current IGAD chairman, said "progress so far has been frustrating, if not gloomy indeed."
The United States, a key backer of South Sudan's independence three years ago, warned rivals that "serious compromise" was needed.
"We believe South Sudan cannot achieve peace and reconciliation via a system that will result in a winner-take-all or winner-take-most solution," U.S. envoy Donal Booth said at the start of the talks.
"Peace requires accountability for atrocity so that the thirst for revenge can be quenched."
Closed door meetings were expected to continue late into the night Thursday.
Regional nations including Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have had to cope with 467,000 refugees who have fled the war.
Uganda has also sent in troops to back Kiir's forces, while Ethiopia and Kenya have sent troops to bolster the U.N. peacekeeping mission.
Source: Agence France Presse
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