A 47-year-old British tourist was killed in a church in a northwestern Ethiopia after a man accidentally fired a gun, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

South Sudan's leaders could face punitive sanctions from their neighbors as a "last resort" if peace talks fail to end their year-old civil war, Ethiopia's prime minister said Monday.

Ethiopia said Monday it was ready to boost its troop levels in Somalia to replace soldiers from Sierra Leone, which has been forced to withdraw its forces from the mission over Ebola fears. 

South Sudan rebels killed, raped and kidnapped civilians during an attack in October, leaving at least 11 dead, the United Nations said in a report.

Fighters backing former vice president Riek Machar attacked the oil-rich town of Bentiu near the border with Sudan on October 29 and "killed at least 11 civilians and committed other serious human rights abuses," said the report, received by Agence France Presse on Saturday.

The U.N. refugee agency said Monday 21 bodies have been recovered after Yemen reported dozens of Ethiopian migrants drowning when their boat sank near the entrance to the Red Sea.

The interior ministry in Sanaa said in a statement posted on its website Sunday that 70 migrants had died when their vessel capsized in bad weather off the port of Al-Makha, near Bab el-Mandab strait.

Direct talks between South Sudan's president and the country's rebel chief have failed to strike a peace deal, mediators said Friday, but added that discussions would continue over the weekend.

President Salva Kiir and ousted vice president Riek Machar have held two days of meetings in Addis Ababa, with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalgen and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta leading the latest push for an end to the nearly 11-month-old civil war.

East African leaders warned South Sudan's warring rivals Thursday they must "come to their senses" to end almost 11 months of bloodshed amid renewed threats of international sanctions.

"There appears to be little appetite for peace, while the people of South Sudan continue bearing the full brunt of conflict," Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalgen said at a summit of regional leaders pushing for a peace deal.

Ethiopia has sentenced a journalist to three years in prison, the government spokesman said Tuesday, the latest in a string of jailings of reporters condemned by media rights groups.

Temesghen Desalegn was sentenced Monday after being found guilty of defamation and incitement, charges he denies.

Over 200 Eritrean refugees are crossing the heavily fortified and dangerous border into arch-foe Ethiopia daily, the United Nations said in a report noting a "spike" in those fleeing.

Tens of thousands have now run away from the autocratic Horn of Africa country, escaping open-ended conscription and the iron-grip rule of President Issaias Afeworki, with many continuing northwards to brave the often harrowing journey towards Europe.

Ethiopia has "ruthlessly targeted" and tortured its largest ethnic group for perceived opposition to the government, Amnesty International said in a damning report Tuesday.

Thousands of people from the Oromo ethnic group have been "regularly subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without charge, enforced disappearance, repeated torture and unlawful state killings," said the report, based on over 200 testimonies.