![FILE: Members of the Rapid Support Forces [RSF], a paramilitary force now in conflict with the Sudanese army, block roads in Khartoum, Sudan, on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020.](https://gdb.voanews.com/69af49e4-bbc0-418d-a83f-c71fb9434cc6_w250_r1_s.jpg)
South Sudan, which won independence from Sudan in 2011, has been playing a mediation role through the regional bloc IGAD to try to resolve the conflict in Sudan.
South Sudan's government "has continued to play its part within IGAD with absolute impartiality," Juba said in a statement on Friday.
"The notion of mediation entails engagement of all parties with equal measure," it added.
Sudan's foreign ministry said in a statement published Thursday that it had issued an "official protest memorandum" to Juba to express its "strong denunciation" over a visit this week by one of Rapid Support Force [RSF] leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo's advisers.
Dagalo's envoy Yusif Isha held talks with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and IGAD officials in Juba on Wednesday, and later told a press conference the RSF was "ready to take part in any step taken by him (Kiir) to reach a lasting peace in Sudan."
Kiir has held several conversations with Sudan's de-facto leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy-turned-rival Dagalo, and also hosted a al-Burhan envoy in Juba on May 8.
South Sudan's government "has continued to play its part within IGAD with absolute impartiality," the foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.
"The notion of mediation entails engagement of all parties with equal measure," it added.
Since the conflict erupted in Khartoum in mid-April, around 1,000 people have been killed and fighting is raging despite several ceasefire deals.
