Shadow over Sudan talks

Little Dack Tap, eight months old, with his mother Nashien Nguat at a hospital in Bentiu, Unity State, South Sudan, on Friday. The mother lost her left leg and the baby his right foot after a bomb fell outside their home.

South Sudan said on Monday that Sudanese war planes and artillery had bombarded its territory on the eve of peace talks, as Southern officials set off to attend African Union-led negotiations in Ethiopia.

“They are bombing South Sudan, attacking South Sudan, and continuing to send armed groups to destablise South Sudan... these are not the signs of peace,” South Sudan's top negotiator Pagan Amum told reporters.

Optimism

However, Mr. Amum said he was still “optimistic” that the talks due to start on Tuesday in Addis Ababa would go ahead and produce results.

The former civil war foes fought heavily in contested border regions last month, the worst fighting since the South won independence last July and sparking international concerns of a return to all-out war. International pressure has pushed both sides to return to the long-running talks stalled by the fighting in April, when Southern troops seized an oilfield from Khartoum's troops for ten days as Sudan launched repeated air strikes.