ADDIS ABABA: South Sudan’s government and rebels are expected to sign a peace deal later Thursday, mediators said, in the first sign of a possible breakthrough in efforts to end the month-old conflict.

The world’s newest nation has been at war since Dec. 15, with thousands killed, close to half a million forced to flee their homes and atrocities allegedly committed by both sides.

But mediators from the East African regional bloc IGAD, which has been brokering talks in a luxury hotel in the Ethiopian capital for more than three weeks, said a peace deal was now imminent.

“There is going to be a signing ceremony... by the South Sudanese parties at 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) today,” mediators from the regional bloc IGAD said in a statement. Fighting broke out between rival army units in the capital Juba on Dec. 15, with President Salva Kiir accusing his sacked deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup.

The conflict quickly deteriorated into all-out war between the regular army, who are being backed by Ugandan troops, and defectors and ethnic militia, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension as members of Kiir’s Dinka tribe clashed with Machar’s Nuer group.

Aid workers and analysts say the conflict has left up to 10,000 dead, while around half a million people have fled their homes.