South Sudan has foiled an attempted coup led by a group of soldiers and politicians, according to its foreign minister.
Barnaba Marial Benjamin said some troops within the main army base raided the weapons store and were repulsed. The number of casualties from the fighting is still unknown.
Mr Benjamin said some politicians had been arrested but could not confirm if former vice president Riek Machar, who he said led the attempt, was among them. The president has ordered a dawn to dusk curfew.
Tension has been mounting in the world's youngest nation since South Sudan president Salva Kiir fired Mr Machar as his deputy in July. Mr Machar has said he may contest the presidency in 2015.
Explosions and sporadic gunfire rang out early today in the capital Juba amid repeated clashes between factions of the military.
Heavily armed soldiers patrolled the streets amid the gunfire emerging from the main army barracks. The streets were largely empty of civilians, with most residents staying indoors. Juba airport was closed.
Mr Machar said after he was fired that if the country is to be united it cannot tolerate a “one man’s rule or it cannot tolerate dictatorship.”
His removal, part of a wider dismissal of the entire cabinet by Mr Kiir, had followed reports of a power struggle within the ruling party.
While Mr Kiir is leader of the ruling SPLM party, many of the dismissed ministers, including Mr Machar, were key figures in the rebel movement that fought a decades-long war against Sudan that led to South Sudan’s independence in 2011.
The local Sudan Tribune newspaper reported on its website that military clashes erupted late yesterday between members of the presidential guard in fighting that seemed to pit soldiers from Mr Kiir’s Dinka tribe against those from the Nuer tribe of Machar.
Hilde Johnson, special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for South Sudan, said she was "deeply concerned" over the fighting.
“I urge all parties in the fighting to cease hostilities immediately and exercise restraint. I have been in touch regularly with the key leaders, including at the highest levels to call for calm,” she said.
South Sudan has experienced bouts of ethnic violence, especially in rural Jonglei state, since the country peacefully broke away from Sudan after a brutal civil war.
AP