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Curfew in South Sudan after fighting breaks out.

17 December 2013 01:52 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The South Sudan government has declared a curfew in the capital Juba after a night of gun battles between rival factions that the president has called "an attempted coup," APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com

President Salva Kiir, dressed in military fatigues rather than his usual suit and cowboy hat, told reporters that he had ordered a curfew from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in response to last night's violence, in which soldiers loyal to his government clashed with "a group of soldiers allied to the former vice president Riek Machar," who was sacked in July.

According to various reports, fighting broke out last night at a barracks in Juba between two factions within the military, before spilling out into the streets of the capital. Middle East Online describes the clashes as involving heavy machine guns and mortar fire, and raged from around midnight until Monday morning, when calm was restored.