CRI听力:China Joins Mediation Effort in S Sudan

A special Chinese envoy for Africa is now in South Sudan to carry out mediation efforts.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying says China is also to provide more humanitarian aid to the conflict-torn country if needed.

"On behalf of the Chinese government, special envoy Zhong Jianhua is currently visiting South Sudan and neighboring countries, and actively carrying out mediation efforts. China is willing to continuously enhance communication and coordination with all the relevant parties and jointly push for restoration of stability in South Sudan."

Meanwhile, leaders from some east African countries are to meet in Kenya to discuss the violence in South Sudan.

More than 1,000 people are now believed to have died in the conflict.

The talks come a day after South Sudan's President Salva Kiir met with the Kenyan president and Ethiopian PM.

The UN's special representative to South Sudan says she expects some UN military reinforcements and critically needed equipment to arrive in the troubled country within 48 hours.

Hilde Johnson is the head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.

"For that reason, I welcome the Security Council's resolution to bolster the ranks of our peacekeepers and UN police by 5,500 and dispatch more military helicopters and assets to enhance the mission's capability to protect civilians to actually implement our mandate."

The Security Council has voted to temporarily increase the UN force from about eight-thousand troops and police to nearly 14-thousand and to send attack helicopters and other equipment.

Johnson said the main violence now is in Malakal, the capital of oil-rich Upper Nile State, with some fighting in Bor, which the government said it retook from renegade forces earlier this week.

The area has been in conflict since the central government lost control of Juba.

Forces loyal to a former deputy president have seized more territory, in fighting that has raised fears of a full-blown civil war in the country.