The preliminary negotiations are to end two weeks of bloodletting following an army revolt.

Delegations of South Sudan's government and rebels were expected in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, yesterday, January 1, 2014 to begin peace talks, the BBC reported. While Ethiopian officials expressed hope that discussions could begin yesterday, the UN's Special Representative to South Sudan, Hilde Johnson, said they will only begin today, January 2, 2014, for "logistical reasons."

Forces and militias loyal to former South Sudan Vice President, Dr Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon, have engaged the army in fighting that has spread to almost half of the country after a failed coup on December 15, 2013. As the delegations arrived for the discussions, Riek Machar warned that hostilities would only cease, and he would only arrive for talks in person, if the preliminary negotiations were satisfactory.

The talks come after leaders of the Inter-governmental Authority on Development, IGAD, issued an ultimatum to Machar to cease fighting against President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s forces by New Year’s Eve or face the consequences. Radio France Internationale, RFI, said Machar was no longer insisting on the liberation of nine former ministers and senior politicians detained by the government in the capital, Juba after the failed coup as a pre-condition for the talks. But a spokesman for the renegade soldiers warned that the peace talks were not likely to make any progress without the detainees being set free.

Meanwhile, the government on Tuesday admitted that it lost the Jonglei State capital, Bor, to the rebels. The Mayor of Bor, Nhial Majak Nhial, said the army made a "tactical retreat" on December 31, 2013. Rebel claimed that after the victory in Bor, they were advancing on the capital, Juba, some 200 km away. The UN confirmed that fighting between the army and rebels took place in Bor the last two days of December 2013, causing at least 3,000 residents to flee.

Government troops retook Bor from mutineers last week, but 25,000 members of a pro-Machar tribal militia known as the ‘White Army’ last week launched an attempt to recapture the state capital. Violence has in two weeks quickly spread to oil-producing states, dividing the country along the ethnic lines of Machar's Nuer group and Kiir's Dinkas. According to the UN, at least 180,000 people have been displaced.