Juba - Sporadic gunfire rang out early on Monday in the South Sudan
capital, Juba, in what appeared to be clashes between sections of the
country's military.
An Associated Press reporter saw heavily
armed soldiers patrolling the streets of Juba early on Monday amid
sporadic gunfire emerging from Juba's main army barracks.
It was not possible to get a comment from official government or military spokespeople because of the poor telephone network.
There
has been political tension in the world's youngest nation since South
Sudan President Salva Kir sacked Riek Machar as his deputy in July.
Machar,
who has expressed a willingness to contest the presidency in 2015, said
after his sacking that if the country is to be united it cannot
tolerate a "one man's rule or it cannot tolerate dictatorship".
Clashes
His
outser, part of a wider dismissal of the entire Cabinet by Kiir, had
followed reports of a power struggle within the ruling party.
The
local Sudan Tribune newspaper reported on its website that clashes
erupted late on Sunday between members of the presidential guard in
fighting that seemed to pit soldiers from Kiira's Dinka tribe against
those from the Nuer tribe of Machar.
In a message to American
citizens on Monday, the US Embassy in Juba said it had received "reports
from multiple reliable sources of ongoing security incidents and
sporadic gunfire in multiple locations" across Juba.
"The US Embassy has not been able to confirm that gunfire and insecurity have fully ceased," the message said.
"The
embassy recommends that all US citizens exercise extra caution at all
times. The US Embassy will continue to closely monitor the security
environment in South Sudan, with particular attention to Juba city and
its immediate surroundings, and will advise US citizens further if the
security situation changes."
Hilde Johnson, special
representative of the UN secretary-general for South Sudan, said in a
statement that the UN mission in Juba was "deeply concerned" over the
fighting that broke out late on Sunday and which continued on Monday.
"As
the Special Representative of the Secretary General I urge all parties
in the fighting to cease hostilities immediately and exercise
restraint," the statement sad. "I have been in touch regularly with the
key leaders, including at the highest levels to call for calm."
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