South Sudan's tentative ceasefire agreement appeared to be holding with no reports of fresh clashes Saturday, hours after the warring sides signed a deal in Addis Ababa to end hostilities. South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar unexpectedly signed an agreement "to immediately cease all hostile activities" late Friday after holding direct talks in Addis Ababa. There were no reports of clashes Saturday in the war-torn nation, where a bloody conflict erupted in mid-December when the power struggle between Kiir and his former vice president Machar turned violent. Philip Aguer, spokesman for South Sudan's army, told dpa by phone in Juba that there were "no reports" of fighting so far, although he cautioned that the military had yet to receive the text of the agreement or the "zero hour" from which the cessation of hostilities would begin.
