Thousands flee South Sudan violence

Fresh gunfire rang out in South Sudan's capital early on Tuesday, forcing thousands of people to seek refuge at UN premises in the capital Juba, diplomats aid.

The US embassy said on its Twitter feed that gunshots were heard in Tomping and urged people to stay indoors.

The unrest began on Sunday with soldiers loyal to a former vice president trying to stage a coup, according to President Salva Kiir, who announced on Monday that the attempted coup had been foiled.

Gunfire - including the sporadic firing of heavy weapons - resumed in the early hours and was still audible at 9am (0600 GMT). It appeared to come from a military headquarters, a few kilometres from the centre of town.

The streets of Juba were deserted, with only military vehicles to be seen and civilians barricaded in their homes.

Kiir said in a statement he released on Monday that security forces had regained control, although a dawn-to-dusk curfew had been imposed.

The soldiers had attacked the South Sudanese military headquarters near Juba University late, sparking sporadic clashes that continued on Monday, the president said.

"The attackers went and [the] armed forces are pursuing them," Kiir added.

"I promise you today that justice will prevail." 

Details of the attempted coup remained sketchy, but South Sudan's Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told the Associated Press news agency that troops in the main army base raided a weapons store in Juba but were repulsed.

Some politicians had since been arrested, he said, but could not confirm if Machar - who he said led the attempted coup - was among them. Benjamin said the coup was plotted by "disgruntled" soldiers and politicians led by Machar.

An Associated Press journalist saw heavily-armed soldiers patrolling the streets of Juba on Monday while gunfire was coming from the city's main army barracks. The streets were largely empty of civilians.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) reported the sound of mortar and heavy machine-gun fire, saying hundreds of civilians had sought shelter at a UN compound.

The UN deputy special representative for South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, tweeted that up to 13,000 civlians were taking refuge from the fighting in UNMISS bases. 

Tension had been mounting in South Sudan since Kiir fired Machar as his deputy in July. Both men belong to two different ethnic groups - Kiir to the Dinka, the most powerful, and and Machar to the Nuer.

Machar, who has expressed a willingness to contest the presidency in 2015, told Al Jazeera in July that if the country is to be united it cannot tolerate "one man's rule or it cannot tolerate dictatorship."

Power struggles

His sacking, part of a wider dismissal of the entire cabinet by Kiir, had followed reports of a power struggle within the ruling party.

At the time, the United States and the European Union urged calm amid fears the dismissals could spark political upheaval in the country.

While Kiir is leader of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement party, many of the dismissed ministers, including 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.

Machar, a deputy chairman of the ruling party, is one of the country's most influential politicians.

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.