South Sudan, 2013 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 15 December 2013 fighting erupted in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, in an event that President Salva Kiir declared to be an attempted coup by supporters of his former vice president Riek Machar, and that ignited a catastrophic civil war. The world's youngest nation, independent only since 2011, was riven by a bitter power struggle between Kiir, of the majority Dinka ethnic group, and Machar, a Nuer whom Kiir had dismissed as vice president in July 2013 amid accusations that he was governing dictatorially. The violence began within the presidential guard, when an order to disarm the guard was applied selectively, disarming Nuer soldiers and rearming Dinka, triggering a firefight between the two factions that spread through the capital.

Kiir, in military uniform, went on television to announce that Machar had attempted a coup, which Machar denied, calling it a fabrication to purge his rivals; many outside observers doubted a coup had been planned at all. Whatever its origin, the clash unleashed ethnic massacres of Nuer civilians in Juba and plunged South Sudan into a civil war along Dinka-Nuer lines that would kill an estimated 400,000 people over the following years.