Juba - South Sudan said on Tuesday it had arrested 10 senior political figures and was hunting for its former vice president over a “foiled coup”, as gunfire rang out a day after rival forces of soldiers clashed in the oil-producing nation's capital.
The prominence of the names - including former finance minister Kosti Manibe among the detained - underlined the size of the rift in the country, less than 2-1/2 years after it seceded from Sudan.
“Those who are still at large will be apprehended,” Information Minister Micheal Makuei said in a statement on a government website, which listed four other people still “at large”.
President Salva Kiir said on Monday the fighting between army factions was a bid to seize power by the former vice president, Riek Machar, whom he sacked in July.
The two men, from different ethnic groups which have clashed in the past, have long been political rivals.
Reuters