SOUTH SUDAN is teetering on the edge of renewed civil war, the top United Nations official in the world’s youngest nation warned on Monday, lamenting the government’s sudden postponement of the latest peace effort.

Calling the situation unfolding in the country “dire,” Nicholas Haysom said that international efforts to broker a peaceful solution can only succeed if President Salva Kiir and his rival-turned-vice president, Riek Machar, are willing to engage “and put the interests of their people ahead of their own.”

The country slid into civil war in December 2013, largely based on ethnic divisions when forces loyal to President Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled those loyal to Mr Machar, an ethnic Nuer.