South Sudan on edge as army hunts coup plotters

The international community has repeatedly urged South Sudan's leaders to exercise restraint amid fears the military's actions in the aftermath of the attempted coup could spark wider ethnic violence.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon told Kiir in a telephone conversation on Tuesday that he expected him “to exercise real leadership at this critical moment, and to instill discipline in the ranks of the (Sudanese military) to stop this fighting among them,” according to Martin Nesirky, a spokesman for the secretary-general's office.

There are “disturbing reports of ethnically-targeted killings,” with most of the fighting pitting soldiers from Kiir's majority Dinka tribe against those from the Nuer tribe of Machar, said Casie Copeland, the South Sudan analyst for the International Crisis Group.