S. Sudan govt: Troops capture 2 towns from rebels

By TOM ODULA and ELIAS MESERET Associated Press

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Government troops captured a rebel stronghold and took back control of another town, sending rebels fleeing toward the Ethiopian border, a South Sudanese military spokesman said Monday. Fighting around the important oil town, however, was still being reported.

The government offensive comes just days after South Sudanese President Salva Kiir told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that he was ready to hold peace talks with the rebel leader, former Vice President Riek Machar. But a spokesman for Machar's negotiating team in Ethiopia told The Associated Press on Monday that Machar first wants a "program" that includes a timeline for the formation of a transitional government as well as its composition and structure.

"The Americans are pushing us to go to Juba and form an interim government. We cannot go there without an agreement on a program first. We need to know who will be in that transitional government, in what capacity, for how long and issues like that," said the spokesman, Yohanis Musa Pouk.

Government troops have taken over the rebel base of Nasir, in the Upper Nile state and re-captured the capital of the oil-producing Unity state, Bentiu, from rebel control, Col. Philip Aguer said.

Bentiu was taken after a day-long exchange of fire Sunday with an unknown number of casualties, Aguer said. However, a security official in South Sudan who insisted on anonymity said reports indicated fighting around Bentiu is still ongoing.

Nasir was the rebel headquarters from where the rebels were mobilizing to attack the town of Malakal, Aguer said. He said Machar and his troops are now somewhere near the Ethiopian border. Pouk said that Machar is still inside South Sudan but he added that Machar will meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn "very soon."

Kerry met with Kiir on Friday in South Sudan's capital Juba and afterward announced during a press briefing that Kiir had expressed willingness to meet with Machar. Kiir then flew to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi where he met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and announced that he is willing to hold the talks with Machar to discuss how to end the conflict in South Sudan.

South Sudan has been rocked by violence since December, when Kiir accused Machar of staging a coup. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed and 1 million people have fled their homes due to the conflict. A peace deal signed in January has failed. With few residents tending crops, U.N. officials say the country faces a severe risk of famine in the months ahead.

The violence is increasingly taking on an ethnic dimension between Kiir's Dinka community and Machar's Nuer community.

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S. Sudan govt: Troops capture 2 towns from rebels