Both signatories to a peace deal in South Sudan have been urged to permit shipments of food aid to reach a population in danger of mass hunger.
Toby Lanzer, the United Nations' top aid official in the region, said roads and rivers must be opened for emergency relief, adding that five million of South Sudan's citizens are in need of urgent humanitarian aid.
The UN request comes after South Sudanese president Salva Kiir and rebel commander Riek Machar signed a ceasefire deal on Friday responding to growing international pressure to end ethnic fighting that has raised fears of genocide.
The deal was made at a meeting in Ethiopia - the first time the two men had met face-to-face since violence erupted in December, following a long power struggle.
Kiir and Machar, both Christians, shook hands and prayed together. The men agreed that a transitional government offered the "best chance" to take the country towards elections next year, though there was no immediate decision on who would be part of an interim administration.
After the signing ceremony, Kiir said: "Now that we have come to our senses … dialogue is the only answer to whatever problem we had. We will continue to move in the right direction."
The truce was to take effect within 24 hours, with both sides agreeing to disengage their forces and refrain from any provocative actions, said Seyoum Mesfin, lead mediator from the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development group.
In a statement, US Secretary of State John Kerry said: "The agreement to immediately stop the fighting in South Sudan and to negotiate a transitional government could mark a breakthrough for the future of South Sudan."
A previous ceasefire accord struck in January swiftly fell apart, with each side blaming the other for fighting that has exacerbated deep-rooted tensions between Kiir's ethnic Dink community and Machar's Nuer group.
Western powers had demanded a new deal. Kerry and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had both visited the country in the past week, part of a diplomatic push by regional and world leaders still haunted by Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
The US has already slapped sanctions on two commanders on opposing sides of the conflict, a sign of its growing frustration with the leaders of the world's youngest country, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article