Today rivals Salva Kiir and Riek Machar – the president and former vice president of South Sudan – are meeting for the first time since the outbreak of civil war in December last year. Machar arrived yesterday in the Ethiopian capital.

The meeting is hosted by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, who chairs the East African regional bloc (IGAD) heading the peace mediation.  

AU Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has high expectations for the meeting, looking forward to a ‘positive outcome’ to the talks and urging the two leaders to “seize the opportunity of their meeting to agree on concrete steps to honor their commitments under the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement of 23 January 2014 and move the political process forward.”

“Every single additional day lost brings more suffering to the people of South Sudan, further tearing apart the social fabric of the country and threatening its very existence, while also seriously affecting regional security and stability,” she said in a welcome note to the parties.

The US is slightly less optimistic. “I don't believe that the two sides will reach an agreement straight away,” US Ambassador to South Sudan Susan Page said to the BBC.

Her government is part of the ‘Troika’ group including Norway and the United Kingdom, which is backing the IGAD-led peace process with the European Union.

The US has recently started imposing targeted economic sanctions on individuals within the government and rebel group, with the intention of seizing their foreign assets and restricting their international travel.

The parties signed earlier this week a ‘recommitment’ to the humanitarian terms within the cessation of hostilities agreement, which was never implemented.

They also committed to consider a ‘month of tranquility’ starting 7 May, but on the day after the agreement, 8 May, government SPLA troops clashed near Bentiu with opposition forces that have retaken parts of the town.

Both parties accuse the other of provoking the start of the fighting. The military situation around Bentiu where over 22,000 people are sheltering in a UN base is tense and unclear.