U.S. Asks South Sudan to Free Prisoners, Sees No Coup Effort

U.S. officials called for the release of South Sudanese political prisoners, and declined to describe the violence that’s wracking the oil-producing country as the result of an attempted coup.

“We have not seen any evidence of a coup attempt,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today. “It is an armed rebellion against the government of South Sudan.”