ADDIS ABABA - Fears of genocide and famine in war-torn South Sudan dominated US Secretary of State John Kerry’s agenda Thursday, as he launched an Africa tour focusing on the continent’s most brutal conflicts.
Kerry arrived for his first major African tour late Wednesday in the Ethiopian capital, which has been hosting start-stop peace talks between South Sudan’s government and rebels aimed at ending a bloody four-month civil war. Outrage is mounting over the scale of killings, with both government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels backing ex-vice president Riek Machar implicated in massacres, rapes, attacks on UN bases and recruiting child soldiers. 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 country, the world’s youngest, which won independence from Sudan only in 2011.