South Sudan Central Government Loses Control of Provincial Capital

In an oil-rich province

The government no longer controls the capital of an oil-producing state, officials said Thursday as an ethnic rivalry and a power struggle threatened to burst the seams of the world's newest country.

A ruling party official also said the president's earlier claim that an attempted coup had triggered the ongoing violence was false. Instead, it erupted Sunday when the presidential guard attempted to disarm fellow guard members who belong to the Nuer tribe, said Choul Laam, chief of staff for the secretary general of the rulingSudan People's Liberation Movement.