Machar refuses to commit to truce as he issues fresh conditions to Kiir

Former South Sudan's vice president Riek Machar during a press conference in Khartoum on May 30, 2011. South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar said on December 27, 2013 that there must be proper negotiations before the rebels can agree to a truce with the government. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Fighting continued on Friday in the oil town of Malakal, Upper Nile State
  • About 63,000 people have turned to the UN for help, among more than 121,600 who have fled their homes in the world’s newest state. At least 1,000 people have died in the fighting.
  • President Salva Kiir is engaged in a deadly power struggle with Dr Machar, his former vice-president, since accusing him of a coup attempt. Members of Mr Kiir’s Dinka ethnic group and Mr Machar’s Nuer community have both been targeted
  • Violence has continued through the week with conflicting reports on Friday about the situation in Malakal, capital of Upper Nile State, where some 12,000 people have been sheltering at a UN base

South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar says there must be proper negotiations before the rebels can agree to a truce with the government.

Dr Machar spoke late Friday after the government said it had agreed to an immediate end to fighting, in a declaration welcomed by East African leaders in Nairobi.

Fighting continued on Friday in the oil town of Malakal, Upper Nile State.

The first UN reinforcements have arrived to help control civilians seeking shelter at UN compounds.

About 63,000 people have turned to the UN for help, among more than 121,600 who have fled their homes in the world’s newest state. At least 1,000 people have died in the fighting.

President Salva Kiir is engaged in a deadly power struggle with Dr Machar, his former vice-president, since accusing him of a coup attempt. Members of Mr Kiir’s Dinka ethnic group and Mr Machar’s Nuer community have both been targeted.

The government has freed two of Dr Machar’s allies from detention, partially meeting a rebel demand for the release of 11 ‘coup plotters’.

US envoy Donald Booth said in Juba he hoped the freed detainees would “participate in a constructive manner in the efforts to bring about peace... and resolve the political issues that sparked this conflict”.

Dr Machar spoke to the BBC World Service by satellite phone “from the bush”, as he put it.

NEED FOR CREDIBLE CEASEFIRE

He said he had a negotiating team ready but any ceasefire had to be serious, credible and properly monitored.

“So until mechanisms for monitoring are established, when one says there is a unilateral ceasefire, there is no way that the other person would be confident that this is a commitment,” he said.

He called for the release of all 11 detainees— a key rebel condition for any negotiations.

Dr Machar said the rebels controlled the whole of Unity State, three-quarters of Upper Nile State and all of Jonglei State except the state capital Bor.

He said he had spoken to the two detainees freed in Juba, whom he named as his executive director, Deng Deng Akon, and former Higher Education Minister Peter Adwok.

The government tweeted to say it had agreed “in principle to a ceasefire to begin immediately”. Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek told regional broadcaster Radio Tamazuj: “It is not a unilateral offer, but it is a conditional offer to be accepted by the other party.”

In Nairobi, South Sudanese Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth said the government had agreed to suspend a planned offensive to recapture Bentiu, the capital of Unity State.

“We are not moving on Bentiu as long as the rebel forces abide by the ceasefire,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

East African regional leaders meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi said they would not accept a violent overthrow of the government and called on the warring sides to meet for talks

within four days.

12,500 PEACEKEEPERS

The first UN reinforcements have arrived since the UN Security Council voted to almost double the number of peacekeepers to 12,500.

A detachment of 72 Bangladeshi police officers based in Democratic Republic of Congo arrived by plane in Juba.

They are trained in crowd management and security, and will be deployed immediately to help with the growing number of people seeking shelter at UN compounds.

Violence has continued through the week with conflicting reports on Friday about the situation in Malakal, capital of Upper Nile State, where some 12,000 people have been sheltering at a UN base.

Both the army and rebels claimed to be in control of the town.

According to Radio Tamazuj, government forces drove rebel soldiers out of the town on Friday, shelling them from tanks.

Dozens of houses were destroyed in the fighting, with a tank shell killing a family of four inside one of them, while three dead bodies were found inside another, the radio said.

In another state, Jonglei, the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) treated gunshot victims who had walked for three days from the war-torn town of Bor in search of safe access to healthcare.

REBELS PUSHED BACK

On Friday, South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer told AFP that all was calm in the main flashpoint areas of recent days, including Malakal, capital of the oil-rich northeastern Upper Nile state, in Bor and in Unity state where the army said it pushed back rebel attacks on Friday.

Mr Aguer insisted his troops would implement any truce agreed by the government and rebels but vowed they would riposte if attacked.

“Definitely if you are attacked you will have to respond,” the army spokesman said.

The death toll nationwide is said to be several thousand. The UN has said more than 120,000 residents have been displaced since the conflict started.