South Sudan peace talks to open in Ethiopia
Source: AP-Excite
By JASON STRAZIUSO and ELIAS MESERET
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) - Negotiators from South Sudan's two warring sides arrived Wednesday in Ethiopia for peace talks, and a U.N. official urged both forces to bring the world's newest country "back from the brink."
Fighting continued in Bor, a gateway city to the capital of Juba, a government official said. Bor is just 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Juba.
Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, is the center of ethnically based violence stemming from the political rivalry between President Salva Kiir and ousted Vice President Riek Machar, the rebel leader accused of mounting a failed coup attempt.
Kiir declared a state of emergency Wednesday in Jonglei and Unity, two states where rebel forces have gained the upper hand in recent fighting.
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Displaced people who fled the recent fighting between government and rebel forces in Bor by boat across the White Nile, bathe and gather water from the Nile in the town of Awerial, South Sudan Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014. The international Red Cross said Wednesday that the road from Bor to the nearby Awerial area "is lined with thousands of people" waiting for boats so they could cross the Nile River and that the gathering of displaced is "is the largest single identified concentration of displaced people in the country so far". (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
