Mediators meet South Sudan’s rebel leader

{Mediators pressed for a ceasefire in South Sudan as government troops fought for control over the last rebel-held town.}

Envoys from the United States and South Sudan’s neighbours met on Saturday with Riek Machar, the former vice president who heads the rebel forces that have been fighting government troops for the past month, the rebels said.

“The American Special envoy to South Sudan and Sudan, Donald Booth together with [regional] mediators travelled to an undisclosed location in South Sudan to meet Dr Riek Machar,” said a statement signed by Machar’s former press officer Miyong G Kuon.

There were unconfirmed news reports that mediators would meet President Salva Kiir on Monday.

The meeting with Machar comes as talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa appear to be stalling. Mediators for the East African regional bloc IGAD have been trying to incorporate the proposals of both sides into a draft ceasefire document.

Fighting erupted in South Sudan on December 15. Kiir accused Machar of attempting a coup, while Machar in turn accused Kiir of using the coup accusation as an excuse to carry out a purge.