South Sudan’s rebel chief Riek Machar has agreed to attend direct talks with President Salva Kiir to end a four-month long civil war, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said on his one-day visit to the country.
Ban, who landed in war-torn South Sudan on Tuesday, told reporters that Machar promised he “will be present” at talks in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
Ban’s comments, reported by AFP news agency, came moments after he spoke to the rebel chief via satellite telephone in his remote bush hideout.
Kiir has already promised to attend talks with his arch rival.
Tuesday’s visit, which comes as rebels and government forces battle for control of a key oil town, is the latest major push for a ceasefire in the conflict that has seen the world’s youngest nation collapse amid a brutal cycle of war crimes.
Both sides in the conflict have been accused of widespread ethnic massacres, r*pe and the recruitment of thousands of child soldiers.
Ban’s arrival in South Sudan also comes days after US Secretary of State John Kerry visited the country and extracted promises from Kiir to meet face-to-face with Machar, a former vice-president who leads the rebel forces.
But despite warnings of US sanctions if fighting continued, the government has pushed forward with a major offensive to claw back towns from the rebels, capturing one of their strongholds and forcing Machar to flee into the bush.
Ban last visited South Sudan amid euphoric celebrations at its independence from Sudan in July 2011, after it voted to split away following decades of war with Khartoum.
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