S Sudan president agrees to talks, rebels pushed for peace: Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday South Sudan’s president would hold direct talks with the rebel chief to end the brutal civil war, as pressure mounted on the insurgents to attend. After talks in Juba with President Salva Kiir, Kerry said the four-month-old war could not be allowed to rage on amid warnings of a slide towards genocide and famine. Kerry spoke by telephone late Friday with rebel commander Riek Machar, who has always said he was open to talks to end the conflict, but he has yet to officially confirm attendance. “I told President Kiir that the choices that he and the opposition face are stark and clear,” Kerry told reporters. Officials said Kerry has brandished the threat of targeted sanctions against Kiir and Machar, and the top US diplomat said he was hopeful the two sides would for the first time sit down for face-to-face talks in neighbouring Ethiopia. Kerry said Kiir was ‘willing to travel to Addis Ababa... hopefully in order to engage in a discussion with the (Ethiopian) prime minister and hopefully with Riek Machar.’ Kerry urged Machar ‘to participate in a meeting as early as next week... to discuss bringing an end to violence,’ a US State Department official said. Machar ‘expressed openness to participating’, the official added. The conflict started on December 15 with Kiir accusing Machar of attempting a coup. Machar then fled to the bush to launch a rebellion, insisting the president had attempted to carry out a bloody purge of his rivals. Kerry’s unannounced visit has been the most determined push yet for an end to the war, which has seen the world’s youngest nation collapse amid a brutal cycle of war crimes by both sides including ethnic massacres, rape and child soldier recruitment, according to AFP.