The United States of America has officially disputed the government of South Sudan’s assertion that the current conflict in South Sudan was sparked by an attempted coup organized by former Vice President Riak Machar.
Machar, who is now leading an open, ethnically driven rebellion against President Salva Kiir’s government has always maintained that the fighting erupted inside the military barracks after one element of the Presidential guards was ordered disarmed by President Kiir.
Several other high ranking South Sudanese officials and military commanders have alleged the same scenario.
The U.S State Department has not officially endorsed that set of events but has now openly opposed the notion that there was an attempted coup.
“We've not seen any evidence that this was a coup attempt, but it certainly was the result of a huge political rift between Riek Machar and the president,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, told a Senate committee in Washington on Thursday.
In addition, the U.S. State Department has agreed that 11 senior politicians that are in prison in Juba should be immediately set free.
“The United States strongly believes that the political prisoners currently being held in Juba must be released,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said.
The release of the 11 detainees is the major obstacle stalling peace talks in Addis Ababa between the two warring factions.
The U.S Department of State testimony comes nine years to the day since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed to end the war between Sudanese and South Sudanese Armed Forces.
The U.S is now focused on trying to avert a new war fought internally, amongst South Sudanese. “Each day that the conflict continues, the risk of an all-out civil war grows as ethnic tensions and more civilians are killed, injured or forced to flee,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the assistant secretary of state for Africa.