China-supported consultations reactivate peace process in S.Sudan

He further commended the efforts being made by China to settle the armed conflict in South Sudan, saying "China, as a permanent member state in the UN Security Council, is working seriously and sincerely to end the conflict in South Sudan. It is acting on the base of its international responsibility and not to achieve any other purposes."

South Sudan rebels' chief negotiator Taban Deng, for his part, said "China is qualified to play a positive role and this meeting is the evidence. We hope these consultations would give a new push to the negotiations."

He went on saying that "we have no objection toward what China is doing and we believe the Chinese role is in the interest of the initiative of the IGAD which is patronizing the negotiations between the two conflicting parties in South Sudan."

Meanwhile, IGAD Chief Mediator Seyoum Mesfin lauded what he described as China's efforts to realize peace in South Sudan, pointing out that the agreement reached by the conflicting parties in South Sudan is an important step to be built upon during the forthcoming IGAD summit.

An extraordinary IGAD summit is scheduled to be held on Jan. 18 in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to discuss the situations in South Sudan.

South Sudan plunged into violence in December 2013, when fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy-turned foe Riek Machar around the capital, Juba.

The conflict soon turned into an all-out war between the army and the defectors, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president's Dinka tribe against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

The clashes have left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.9 million people to flee homes in the world's youngest nation.