The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday demanded that the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels quickly make peace, and pressed the insurgents to immediately free all women, children and other non-combatants.
In a statement read by its president for November, Peru's UN Ambassador Jorge Voto-Bernales, the 15-member council said it was closely monitoring the peace talks between Kampala and its LRA foes in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba.
It commended the government of southern Sudan for facilitating the cessation of hostilities in northern Uganda and urged all parties to the two-decade conflict to commit themselves to a "long-term and peaceful solution".
Council members demanded that the LRA "immediately release all women, children and other non-combatants" in line with a 2005 UN resolution and that "the peace process be concluded expeditiously".
They also urged UN member states to back efforts to hasten an end to the conflict, which has displaced up to two million people and caused the death of about 100,000 people in the region.
Earlier this month, the Kampala government and the LRA renewed a landmark August truce despite trading accusations of increasing violations of the pact, but negotiations intended to produce a comprehensive peace deal remain stalled.
On Tuesday, UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said the world body, which has a large mission in south Sudan, planned to join a team monitoring the truce.
He said the United Nations would deploy observers and helicopters to reinforce a monitoring team made up of officials from southern Sudan, the African Union, the Ugandan government and the LRA.