Bodies litter South Sudan oil town; talks resume

BENTIU, South Sudan: Dozens of dead, mangled and bloated bodies line the roadside from the airport into this state capital of one of South Sudan’s oil-producing regions. Houses, buildings and shops have been looted, burned or destroyed.
The remnants of war in Bentiu show the damage being done across the world’s newest country. Government troops are now in full control there.
Negotiators for the two sides in South Sudan’s nearly month-old conflict met face-to-face in Addis Abba, Ethiopia on Monday. A Kenyan mediator said the agenda will include talks on a cessation of hostilities.
Despite the appearance of diplomatic progress, more violence also looks possible. By boat and truck, South Sudan troops are moving in on the rebel-held town of Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, just north of country capital Juba.
“Bor is still in the hands of the rebels but our forces are still moving toward it,” Col. Philip Aguer said.
Bor, the capital of the restive Jonglei State some 200 kms north of Juba, has already changed hands three times since fighting broke out in South Sudan one month ago.
The fighting is between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and a loose coalition of army defectors and ethnic militia nominally headed by Riek Machar, a former vice president and seasoned guerrilla fighter.
Negotiators for both sides met for the first time in five days in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in the hope of reaching a cease-fire agreement.
Mediators from the East African regional bloc IGAD are trying to bring the two sides to a compromise over the issue of 11 pro-Machar figures who were arrested by loyalist forces shortly after the fighting erupted on December 15.
Machar’s side has insisted the detainees should be released, while Kiir is equally adamant they should face justice.
“We continue to put pressure on both sides — on both sides to sign the agreement and also on the government to agree to the release of the 11 ... who remain detained in Juba,” US envoy Donald Booth told journalists Sunday.
Government troops recaptured the key north oil city of Bentiu last week, but have since grappled with rebel fighters closer to the capital Juba — with new clashes reportedly taking place just 20 kilometers from Juba on Sunday.
“Salva Kiir sent a very huge force to attack our position. The attacking convoy was destroyed in a two-hour fight,” rebel spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said in a statement on the clashes near the capital.
Aguer confirmed that clashes had taken place, but there was no immediate independent confirmation of who had got the upper hand.
The rebel force in the region is commanded by Alfred Ladu Gore, a respected fighter from the Juba region and one of several opposition figures on a government wanted list.
The rebels also claim they are close to retaking Malakal, the capital of the biggest oil-producing state Upper Nile.
An AFP photographer who was in Malakal on Sunday said that the town was calm but that the remaining residents were huddled in the town center, too scared to return to their looted homes.