30 December 2013 - As conflict continues to rage in South Sudan, the UN moved on diplomatic and military fronts today to quell the violence.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the government to free political prisoners and hold talks with rebels. The Security Council held a crisis meeting on latest efforts to reinforce UN peacekeepers in the world’s newest country.

“[It] is (a) very, very dire situation,” Council President, Gérard Araud of France, told reporters after the meeting.

The 15-member body was briefed during the meeting by Mr. Ban’s Special Representative, Hilde Johnson by video link from Juba on latest developments in the fighting, mediation efforts of neighbours, and steps by humanitarian agencies to bring aid to those in need.

The fighting in South Sudan erupted on 15 December when President Salva Kiir said soldiers loyal to former deputy president Riek Machar, dismissed in July, launched an attempted coup.

Thousands of people are estimated to have died in the violence and some 180,000 others have been driven from their homes, with some 68,000 seeking refuge on UNMISS bases.

The peacekeeping mission has been authorized by the Council to almost double its armed strength to nearly 14,000 in an effort to protect civilians.

“It’s a situation that is really tragic,” Mr. Araud said. “It’s impossible to assess the number of casualties, but it’s really pretty high.”

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous said it is hoped that all peacekeeping reinforcements will be on the ground within one to three weeks. The first two police units have already arrived.

Mr. Ban spoke by phone with Mr. Kiir this morning, welcoming his declared commitment to cease hostilities and readiness to engage opposition leaders in dialogue. He also encouraged him to consider the early release of political prisoners.

He reiterated full UN support for mediation efforts by the East African regional bloc known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and called for full cooperation by all parties in finding a peaceful solution. He also stressed the need to hold accountable those responsible for attacks on civilians.

Mr. Ladsous, who also briefed the Council, told reporters much progress had been made on finding reinforcements for UNMISS, including both troops and equipment such as helicopters. “We have been working round the clock to secure the contributions, the contingents and the equipment.”

Many reinforcements are being seconded from other UN peacekeeping missions in Darfur, Liberia, Haiti and Côte d’Ivoire, but these missions cannot supply all necessary equipment such as a level-two field hospital and tactical helicopters.

“UNMISS suffers from a lack of rotary wing air assets. This is why it is a high priority that we can bring in more both utility and tactical helicopters,” Mr. Ladsous said, noting the mission’s surveillance and monitoring role over the vast territory, where it has detected armed groups moving north-east of Bor.

Mr. Araud, the Permanent Representative of France which holds this month’s rotating Council presidency, said Mr. Ban wrote to the Council asking for attack helicopters.

There is still a lot of fighting going on around Bor, capital of Jonglei state, where 20,000 civilians have sought shelter on UN bases. In Bentiu, government forces are positioned to take the city.

The human rights situation is “also pretty worrying. There are reports of torturing, killing, disappearance and of ethnically targeted violence,” Mr. Araud noted.

The Council expressed support for IGAD’s mediation efforts, which are being carried out by Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Mr. Ladsous said there could be no conditions on which nationalities supplied UNMISS with reinforcement. “We would expect total cooperation from the Government of South Sudan …we will not be pleased at all if there were to be, as there seem to have been, some caveats on the choice of certain nationalities.”

On the humanitarian front, aid agencies have reached an estimated 106,000 displaced people so far with food, water, sanitation and health care, both inside and outside UN peacekeeping bases. They have delivered high-energy biscuits to children and are working on establishing malnutrition screening and treatment centres in Juba.

Thousands of children under 15 years of age will receive measles and polio vaccines at the peacekeeping base in Tomping, Juba.

Aid organizations have appealed for a total of $209 million to provide immediate assistance to families over the next three months. They have received only $43 million so far.