Fresh reports of atrocities in war-torn South Sudan emerged today as negotiators tried to break a deadlock in talks in Ethiopia aimed at ending weeks of brutal conflict in the young nation.
Thousands have been killed and half a million civilians forced to flee the fighting between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels allied to his sacked deputy Riek Machar.
The United Nations says atrocities have been committed by both sides, including mass killings, sexual violence and widespread destruction.
A report released today by South Sudan's presidency detailed devastation in the town of Bor while it was under rebel control, accusing the rebels of executing 127 patients in the hospital.
Bor, which has swapped hands four times in the conflict, was left with corpses littering the streets and scores of buildings razed to the ground.
The government report could not be independently verified, but civilians in Bor have recounted to AFP grim stories of how the rebels gang-raped and murdered patients in the town's hospital.
"Towns such as Malakal, Bor and Bentiu have been reduced to rubble, and there is nothing to salvage," presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said in a statement.
Stalled ceasefire talks in Ethiopia are being mediated by the East African regional bloc IGAD, with the two sides meeting face to face again today afternoon.
Fighting has spiralled into ethnic killings between members of Kiir's Dinka people -- the country's largest group -- and Machar's Nuer. Many fear the conflict has spun out of the control of the politicians who sparked it.
"More important than signing is the work we do after... As attitudes on the ground will not change with the stroke of a pen," rebel delegate Mabior Garang said late yesterday.
