Officials in Bor, capital of Jonglei state, are believed to have defected as violence spreads after alleged coup attempt

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

South Sudan's military says it no longer controls a key town in the rural state of Jonglei, where fighting has spread in the aftermath of what the government says was an attempted coup mounted by soldiers loyal to a former deputy president.

Authorities in the state capital of Bor were not answering their phones, leading the central government to believe they had defected, the military's spokesman, Philip Aguer, said. "We lost control of Bor to the rebellion,"

There were reported gunfights in Bor overnight as renegade officers tried to wrest control of the town from loyalist forces, he added.

Citing figures from the South Sudan Red Cross, a spokesman for the UN secretary general's office said at least 19 civilians had been killed in Bor. He said tensions were also on the rise in Unity and Upper Nile states.

Ethnic rivalry is threatening to tear apart the world's newest country, with the clashes apparently pitting soldiers from the majority Dinka tribe of the president, Salva Kiir, against those from the Nuer ethnic group of the ousted vice-president Riek Machar.

The government said on Wednesday that at least 500 people, most of them soldiers, had been killed since the alleged coup attempt on Sunday. At least 700 more have been wounded, according to the information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth.

The Ugandan government said on Thursday that the UN had asked Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, to mediate between the rival factions. A spokesman said a Ugandan minister would join an east African mediation effort to South Sudan announced by the African Union.

Although Juba, the South Sudanese capital where the alleged coup was mounted, has since become calm, violence appears to be spreading to other parts of the oil-rich east African nation.

Tensions have been mounting in South Sudan since Kiir fired Machar as his deputy in July. Machar has said he will contest the presidency in 2015.

Machar is the subject of a manhunt by the military after he was identified by Kiir as the leader of the alleged coup attempt. He has denied the allegation.

Kiir told a news conference in Juba late on Wednesday that he was willing to enter talks with Machar, a rival for power within the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said on Wednesday that South Sudan was experiencing a political crisis that "urgently needs to be dealt with through political dialogue". Ban said he had urged Kiir to resume dialogue with the opposition.

South Sudan has been plagued by ethnic violence since it broke away peacefully from Sudan in 2011 after decades of civil war.