Peace talks offered by rebel leader in second week of South Sudan conflict

South Sudanese shelter at a makeshift IDP camp at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compound in Juba on December 22, 2013 where people continue to flock as fears of a resumption of fighting in the capital fester. Photo by TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images

South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar said that he is willing to open negotiations with President Salva Kiir, on the condition that Kiir first releases key political allies detained by the government.

The comments, made to Reuters on Monday, were unheeded by Information Minister Michael Makuei who said that the South Sudanese government would never release prisoners accused of assisting a coup d’etat. President Kiir told U.S. special envoy to South Sudan, Donald Booth, that talks would only go forward without preconditions.

[The ongoing strife in South Sudan](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/july-dec13/southsudan_12-20.html
) has been tinged with ethnic overtures between the Dinka, Kiir’s group and the Nuer, which Machar leads. Riek Machar, the former vice president, [maintains that there was no attempted coup](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25427619) but rather a misunderstanding between presidential guards on December 15 despite continued statements to the contrary from President Kiir.

The nine-day conflict has claimed between 400 and 500 lives according to United Nations military sources. The United States has already evacuated three flights of citizens and is willing to help others depart if negotiations cannot bring peace.

“The situation is very fluid and very volatile,” Joseph Contreras, a spokesman for the U.N. mission to Sudan, said to news agency DPA. “I don’t think this crisis is coming to an end yet. [That the] violence has spread to other states is worrying.”

Diplomats said the U.N. is expected to adopt a resolution Tuesday which would approve an additional 5,000 peacekeepers to the area.

H/T Jordan Vesey