Opposition head Riek Machar denies coup bid

Juba. Fugitive former South Sudanese vice-president Riek Machar has denied government allegations that he tried to stage a coup at the weekend.In a BBC interview, he denied any link with fighting that began on Sunday and accused President Salva Kiir of “inciting tribal and ethnic violence”.The UN has said the fighting has claimed hundreds of lives, and warned that it could descend into civil war.The government says it fully controls the capital Juba and all other cities.President Kiir has said a group of soldiers supporting Mr Machar had tried to take power by force on Sunday night, but were defeated.He said the clashes began when uniformed personnel opened fire at a meeting of the governing party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).But Mr Machar told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme on Wednesday: “There was no attempted coup.” The whereabouts of Mr Machar are unclear. He told the BBC he was still in South Sudan and was “not going to leave the country”.He blamed Sunday’s fighting on a conflict between members of the presidential guard, and said it spread across parts of Juba.He added that government troops used the incident to arrest some of his supporters on Monday, and that he himself escaped.“Someone wanted to frame me,” he said. “I had to flee. They are hunting me down.” Details of the fighting have been sketchy, but a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday was told that the clashes were “apparently largely along ethnic lines”.