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NAIROBI. — Mediators from the East African bloc have condemned heavy fighting in Nassir, Upper Nile State, and near Bentiu, Unity State of South Sudan and called for ceasefire between the warring parties.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Special Envoys for South Sudan also reiterated their call to the regional countries, the African Union, the UN, the Troika, the EU and the international community to join them in pressuring the parties to immediately end hostilities and commit to the ongoing peace process.

“At the start of this New Year, the IGAD Special Envoys urge the warring parties to make the gift of peace to the people of South Sudan, and ensure that the conflict does not continue for one moment longer,” the statement said issued on Thursday night.

The IGAD special envoys General Lazarus Sumbeiywo and Seyoum Mesfin of Ethiopia urged warring parties to demonstrate restraint and immediately cease hostilities, in line with their repeated pledges to end the war.

The warring parties committed during the IGAD Heads of State and government summit to an unconditional, complete and immediate end to all hostilities.

“It is the clear expectation, and plea of the IGAD Special Envoys, that this commitment is fully respected,” the envoys said in a statement received in Nairobi.

The special envoys directed the IGAD Monitoring and Verification Teams to investigate these latest incidents and determine responsibility for the violations. 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 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. — Xinhua.