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Tuesday, December 17, 2013
If its battles with its neighbors to the north were not enough to contend with, South Sudan has now had to repel a coup attempt inside the country.
On December 16 the country’s military quashed an attempted coup. The country’s president, Salva Kiir, addressing the public in a televised statement said soldiers loyal to his former vice president, Riek Machar, was behind the attempt. Kiir dismissed most of his government in July, including Machar.
In his televised address the president said the government was in full control of the capital, “They tried to carry out a coup — a so-called coup d’etat — but they have failed,” Kiir said. “All the people who were involved in this will be arrested.”
The government instituted a nighttime curfew for the sake of security and safety of its citizens, Kiir said. Citizens will be required to stay indoors between the hours of 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. The airport in Juba was also shut down.
The US and UK embassies in Juba have urged their citizens via Twitter to stay indoors and be cautious. “Gunshots/artillery fired over the past few hours in several locations in Juba,” the U.S. Mission in Juba tweeted. On its Facebook page the US embassy said that while there had been a lull in the violence, it was still receiving reports of gunfire on and off in other parts of the city.
There were reports that Machar had taken shelter at the US embassy, however the embassy in a tweet denied the claims. “We take this opportunity to reaffirm our earlier message that no political or military figures have taken refuge within the US Embassy,” the mission said.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) revealed that hundreds of people, mainly women and children, have taken shelter at the UNMISS compound. “We hope the security situation in Juba will quickly normalize to enable the civilians to return very soon to their residential areas. To that end, UNMISS calls on all parties to show continued calm and restraint,” it said in a statement.
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