UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations moved on the diplomatic and military fronts today to douse the flames of conflict in South Sudan, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging the government to free political prisoners to facilitate talks with rebels and the Security Council holding a crisis meeting to reinforce UN peacekeepers in the world’s newest country.
“[It] is very, very dire situation,” Council President, Gerard Araud of France, told reporters after the meeting, in which the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative, Hilde Johnson, briefed the 15-member body by video link from Juba, South Sudan’s capital, on the latest developments in the fighting, the mediation efforts of neighbours to stop, and the steps by humanitarian agencies to bring aid to those in need.  Speaking in the Council’s closed-door meeting on Monday, Pakistan’s UN Ambasssador Masood Khan called for reinforcing political efforts in strife-torn South Sudan, while strengthening the UN peacekeeping mission in a decisive bid to resolve the crisis.
“What we need urgently is an immediate and unconditional ceasefire; and peace talks,” Ambassador Masood Khan told the Security Council which met behind closed doors to disciss the tense situation in South Sudan, according to diplomatic sources.
AFP adds: Rebels in South Sudan said they had recaptured the key town of Bor Tuesday after a pre-dawn assault on government forces. “Bor is under our control... we are now in Bor town,” rebel spokesman Moses Ruai told AFP. Government officials had earlier confirmed heavy fighting in the town, but the rebel claim could not be immediately verified.
Bor, the capital of volatile Jonglei state, lies some 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Juba. South Sudanese army spokesman Philip Aguer disputed the claim, saying the fighting was ongoing. “That is not true. There is still fighting in Bor. The fighting is not yet over,” he told AFP.
A UN spokesman had reported that fighting had broken out in the vicinity of a UN compound in Bor just before dawn and said that fighting was also under way at a key intersection in the town.
Claims of the retaking of Bor came as the Ethiopian government announced that both South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar were expected later Tuesday in Addis Ababa for peace talks.