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LequteMan
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Talks to halt violence that has killed at least 1,000 people in South Sudan faced further delay on Wednesday, after the government rejected rebel calls for immediate release of detainees.
The three weeks of fighting, often along ethnic faultlines, pitted President Salva Kiir's SPLA government forces against rebels loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, and brought the oil exporting nation close to civil war.
Both sides met face-to-face for the first time on Tuesday in Addis Ababa, but quickly took a break for African mediators to head to Juba and push for the release of 11 rebel detainees, who were arrested last year over an alleged coup plot.
But Kiir's government rejected the request, saying the detainees would only be freed as long as the requisite legal processes have taken place.
“We are willing to hear what the IGAD mediators will suggest and we will confer as a group," said Mabior Garang, Spokesman of Machar's delegation to the talks in the Ethiopian capital.
IGAD is the East African group leading the mediation. Its mediators were set to arrive in Addis Ababa on Wednesday evening.
The three weeks of fighting, often along ethnic faultlines, pitted President Salva Kiir's SPLA government forces against rebels loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, and brought the oil exporting nation close to civil war.
Both sides met face-to-face for the first time on Tuesday in Addis Ababa, but quickly took a break for African mediators to head to Juba and push for the release of 11 rebel detainees, who were arrested last year over an alleged coup plot.
But Kiir's government rejected the request, saying the detainees would only be freed as long as the requisite legal processes have taken place.
“We are willing to hear what the IGAD mediators will suggest and we will confer as a group," said Mabior Garang, Spokesman of Machar's delegation to the talks in the Ethiopian capital.
IGAD is the East African group leading the mediation. Its mediators were set to arrive in Addis Ababa on Wednesday evening.
