UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Saturday said it was "unacceptable" South Sudan's warring parties had yet to make peace as a deadline approaches for the rivals to join forces in government.
President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar have failed to break a deadlock over key terms of a power-sharing agreement with just two weeks until they are to form a unity government.
The pair have already missed two previous deadlines to settle their differences and enshrine a lasting peace to put an end to six years of bloody civil war that has left 380,000 people dead and millions more in dire poverty.
"Think about your people, respect your people, you have not the right to continue the confrontation when your people are suffering so much," Guterres told reporters in Addis Ababa ahead of an African Union summit.
"It is your moral and political responsibility to put an end to this and to find the agreements that are necessary to make South Sudan enter into a normal life."
"It is time for the South Sudanese leaders to agree to cooperate, and to deserve the wonderful people they have."