Tribal Militia Marches on South Sudan After Ceasefire Declared

Former Vice President Riek Machar denied both sides had agreed to stop fighting

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Ben Curtis / AP

Displaced people walk inside a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in Juba, South Sudan, Dec. 27, 2013.

Thousands of members of the “White Army” are marching toward the contested state capital of Bor in South Sudan, an official said Saturday, dashing short-lived hopes for a peaceful end to the the two-week-long fighting that has taken an estimated 1,000 lives.

East African leaders said Friday that a ceasefire had been arranged between the government and forces loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, who the government accuses of attempting a coup on December 15. But in an interview with the BBC, Machar rejected the notion that a ceasefire had been negotiated, the Associated Press reports.

In addition to those killed, thousands have been displaced in the violence that threatens to spiral into an ethnically charged civil war in the three-year-old country.

[AP]