Post date: Dec 30, 2013 4:30:54 PM
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni tells a news conference in the South Sudanese capital Juba that a group of East African nations had agreed to unite to defeat the South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar unless he agrees to a ceasefire in four days, in a move that threatens to widen the domestic conflict into a regional one.
JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN (REUTERS) - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday (December 30) said East African nations had agreed to unite to defeat South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Macharif he rejected a ceasefire offer, threatening to turn an outburst of ethnic fighting into a regional conflict.
Two weeks of clashes have already killed at least 1,000 people in the world's newest nation, rocked oil markets and raised fears of a civil war in a region ravaged by fighting inCentral African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo.Speaking at a news conference, Museveni told reporters in South Sudan's capital, Juba, that the group had made a very clear ceasefire offer to the rebel leader.
"We gave Riek Machar some four days to respond and if he doesn't we shall have to go for him, all of us, that is what we agreed in Nairobi," he said.
Asked what that meant, Museveni said: "to defeat him."
There was no immediate confirmation of the pact from other countries, including economic powerhouses Kenya and Ethiopia, who have been trying to mediate and last week gave the sides until Dec. 31 to lay down their weapons.
The United Nations, Washington, and other Western countries who have poured millions of dollars of aid into South Sudan since it won its independence from Sudan in 2011, have also scrambled to stem the unrest.
Fighting between rival groups of soldiers erupted in the capital Juba on Dec. 15, then triggered clashes in half of South Sudan's 10 states - often along ethnic lines, between Machar's group, the Nuer, and President Salva Kiir's Dinka.
Museveni was quick to praise Kiir's work in fighting the rebels.
"I want to congratulate General Salva for defeating these fellows in the town here and I hear they are in the provinces trying to make trouble, but they should know they will be defeated if they do not come for peace," he said.
Juba's streets appeared calm on Sunday (December 29), though many people remain internally displaced by a domestic conflict in the world's newest nation that the United Nations says has affected around121,600 people during 13 days of fighting.
Well over 1,000 people have already been killed, according to the head of the U.N. mission in Sudan.
Kiir, who sacked Machar in July, accused him of starting the fighting in a bid to seize power - a charge denied by Machar.
He has since retreated into the bush and acknowledged he is leading rebel fighters.
Machar has responded coolly to the ceasefire offer and the army has said it has continued to fight his soldiers.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 under a peace agreement to end decades of war with the Khartoum government in the north.
That conflict also saw fighting between southern factions, including one splinter group led by Machar.