The South Sudanese ambassador to Uganda has said that fighting broke out after forces loyal to the former vice president attempted to take control of the barracks to secure weapons to carry out a coup against the government of President Salva Kiir.
The South Sudan Ambassador Samuel Luate Laminsuk addressing a press conference regarding the security situation in the Republic of South Sudan
Ambassador Samuel Luate Lominsuk was on Tuesday briefing journalists on the background of the ongoing fighting in Juba as well as the current situation in the capital Juba. He said that the attackers were repelled and many of them fled.
He said that it began when the SPLM Liberation Council was in a meeting attended by delegates from all the 10 state of the country, including President Kiir. However, former vice president Dr. Riek Machar who is the current deputy chairperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) did not attend the meeting with other senior party members.
The absentees at the meeting, including Dr. Machar, are part of a group that lost their position during a cabinet reshuffle in May this year.
“Motives for this group not attending the party’s session were not clear to the rest of the members who were in attendance,” Lominsuk said.
He said that the same dissenting soldiers were repelled when they next attacked a barracks nearby to the SPLA general headquarters in an attempt to seize weapons and to advance to the general headquarters to control it.
He said that there is an ongoing dusk to dawn curfew, while the government is doing all it can to restore order and protect citizens, foreign nationals and the diplomatic corps.
“As a member of the UN, the Government of the Republic of South Sudan is committed to its duty of resolving this situation amicably and is committed to a dialogue that will restore the peace amongst the people of South Sudan regardless of the agenda, political affiliation, etc,” said Lominsuk.
Source The New Vision