South Sudan has released from prison the last four men accused by the government of attempting to launch a coup in the country.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir said charges of attempting to overthrow the government and treason brought against the four figures had been dropped “in order to promote peace and reconciliation among our people.”

The South Sudanese president also said that the release of the last of 11 men held by the government was the “price of peace” and the “only way” out of a deadly four-month war.

Kiir added that the execution of the four would not “compensate those who were killed.”

The South Sudanese president, however, has ordered the released men to remain in the country. He also warned that they could be recalled back “if the criminal procedures are reviewed.”

Former secretary general of the country’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and freed detainee, Pagan Amum, urged both sides to return South Sudan to peace.

Amum said he would work with the government and rebels “to end this senseless war that is killing out people.”

Former chief of general staff, Oyai Deng Ajak, former deputy Defense Minister Majak Agot, and former ambassador to Washington, Ezekiel Lol Gatkouth, were also released.

Back in January, seven of the 11 men detained last December, were released and sent to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after being granted political asylum.

The release of the men was a major demand of the rebel leader and former vice president, Riek Machar.

Violence broke out in the capital, Juba, in mid-December last year, when President Kiir accused Machar of attempting to stage a coup.

The conflict turned into an all-out war between the army and defectors, with the turmoil taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer ethnic group.