Summary Kjemprud urges them to leave personal ambitions aside and look for peace.
JUBA (AFP) - Warring South Sudanese leaders must put aside personal ambitions to settle a peace deal for the sake of their country, British, Norwegian and US special envoys said Friday.
"They say they want peace," Norway s Jens-Petter Kjemprud told reporters, standing alongside Britain s Matthew Cannell and US envoy Donald Booth, warning that it would require "compromises to be done".
Previous appeals have been repeatedly ignored.
Peace talks are stalled, while political and military leaders have repeatedly broken promises made under intense international pressure, including visits by UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The talks, which have been repeatedly interrupted since they began in January, aim to find a lasting solution to the conflict that broke out on December 15 between factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former vice-president Riek Machar.
"We urge them to leave personal ambitions aside and look for peace," Kjemprud said.
Thousands of people have been killed and almost two million have fled over 10 months of fighting between government troops, mutinous soldiers and ragtag militia forces divided along tribal lines.
"The immediate priority is stopping the fighting and securing a sustainable peace," Cannel said.
Almost 100,000 people are sheltering in squalid UN peacekeeping bases fearing they will be killed if they leave.
"The humanitarian situation remains dire," Booth said.
Earlier this month, a group of 19 major aid agencies warned that while massive food drops had helped avert famine for now, the threat remained, and the risk grew greater the longer the war continues and the weaker the people suffering become.
