US Secretary of State John Kerry (R) meets with Olusegun Obasanjo, chairman of the African Union's South Sudan Commission of Inquiry, in Addis Ababa on May 2, 2014
Juba:
US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in South Sudan on Friday to demand a ceasefire in a brutal four-month-old civil war that has sparked dire warnings of genocide and famine.
"Secretary Kerry will reiterate the need for all parties to respect the cessation of hostilities agreement (and) to immediately cease attacks on civilians," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
He will also urge warring factions to "fully cooperate with the United Nations and humanitarian organisations to protect civilians and to provide life-saving assistance to the people of South Sudan," Psaki added in a statement.
Outrage is mounting over the scale of killings in South Sudan, with both government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels backing ex-vice president Riek Machar implicated in massacres, rapes, and recruiting child soldiers.
Kerry, who is expected to hold talks with Kiir, is also scheduled to meet leaders of the UN peacekeeping force, whose troops have come under attack from warring parties, and are struggling to stem a wave of atrocities.
He will also meet with civil society leaders as well as community chiefs from the nearly one million people who have been forced from their homes, including some of the tens of thousands sheltering inside UN bases for fear they will be killed if they leave the protection of the fortified camps.
His visit to Juba, capital of the young nation, comes a day after Kerry warned of the risk of genocide and famine in South Sudan, and brandished the threat of sanctions against leaders on both sides of the war.
"There are very disturbing leading indicators of the kind of ethnic, tribal, targeted nationalistic killings taking place that raise serious questions," Kerry said Thursday in Ethiopia, his first stop on a four-nation Africa tour.
"Were they to continue in the way they've been going (they) could really present a very serious challenge to the international community with respect to the questions of genocide," he added.
The US was instrumental in helping South Sudan gain independence from Khartoum in 2011, and Kerry's visit to the region has been taken as a sign of growing unease in Washington over how the country has collapsed in such a short period time.
Thousands of people have already been killed -- and possibly tens of thousands -- with at least 1.2 million people forced to flee their homes in the world's newest country.
"Secretary Kerry will reiterate the need for all parties to respect the cessation of hostilities agreement (and) to immediately cease attacks on civilians," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
He will also urge warring factions to "fully cooperate with the United Nations and humanitarian organisations to protect civilians and to provide life-saving assistance to the people of South Sudan," Psaki added in a statement.
Outrage is mounting over the scale of killings in South Sudan, with both government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels backing ex-vice president Riek Machar implicated in massacres, rapes, and recruiting child soldiers.
Kerry, who is expected to hold talks with Kiir, is also scheduled to meet leaders of the UN peacekeeping force, whose troops have come under attack from warring parties, and are struggling to stem a wave of atrocities.
He will also meet with civil society leaders as well as community chiefs from the nearly one million people who have been forced from their homes, including some of the tens of thousands sheltering inside UN bases for fear they will be killed if they leave the protection of the fortified camps.
His visit to Juba, capital of the young nation, comes a day after Kerry warned of the risk of genocide and famine in South Sudan, and brandished the threat of sanctions against leaders on both sides of the war.
"There are very disturbing leading indicators of the kind of ethnic, tribal, targeted nationalistic killings taking place that raise serious questions," Kerry said Thursday in Ethiopia, his first stop on a four-nation Africa tour.
"Were they to continue in the way they've been going (they) could really present a very serious challenge to the international community with respect to the questions of genocide," he added.
The US was instrumental in helping South Sudan gain independence from Khartoum in 2011, and Kerry's visit to the region has been taken as a sign of growing unease in Washington over how the country has collapsed in such a short period time.
Thousands of people have already been killed -- and possibly tens of thousands -- with at least 1.2 million people forced to flee their homes in the world's newest country.
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