Salva Kiir Mayardit

Salva Kiir Mayardit (born 13 September 1951), also known as Salva Kiir, is a South Sudanese politician who has been the President of South Sudan since its independence on 9 July 2011.

Kiir was born in 1951 into a pastoral Dinka family in the village of Akon in the Awan-Chan Dinka community in Gogrial County, South Sudan, as the eighth of nine children (six boys and three girls) in the family.

In the late 1960s, Kiir joined the Anyanya battalion in the First Sudanese Civil War.

By the time of the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement, he was a low-ranking officer.

In 1983, when John Garang joined an army mutiny he had been sent to put down, Kiir and other Southern leaders joined the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the second civil war.

Garang De Mabior had advanced military knowledge and experience from both the United States and Sudan, and Kiir served as his deputy.

In 1997, Kiir commanded the SPLA troops that took part in Operation Thunderbolt, a very successful rebel offensive during which most of Western Equatoria was captured by the SPLA.

Kiir eventually rose to head the SPLA, the SPLM's military wing when Dr. John Garang was killed in a helicopter crash.

Rumours to remove Kiir from his post as SPLA Chief of Staff in 2004 nearly caused the organization to split.

Prior to independence, he was the President of the Government of Southern Sudan, as well as First Vice President of Sudan, from 2005 to 2011.

He was named Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in 2005, following the death of John Garang.

Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement formally ending the war in January 2005, Garang was sworn in as the Vice President of the Republic of Sudan.

After the death of Garang in a helicopter crash on 30 July 2005, Kiir was chosen to succeed to the post of First Vice President of Sudan and President of Southern Sudan.

Before independence, Kiir was popular among the military wing of the SPLA/M for his loyalty to the vision of the SPLA/M throughout the liberation struggle and among those who do not trust the successive governments that have come and gone in the Sudan.

His father, Kuethpiny Thiik Atem (d. 2007), was a cattle herder who belonged to Payum clan.

Atem had three wives, Awiei Rou Wol, Adut Makuei Piol and Awien Akoon Deng, along with 16 children.

Kiir's mother, Awiei Rou Wol Tong was a farmer, who belonged to the Payii clan.

Comments by Kiir in October 2009 that the forthcoming independence referendum was a choice between being "a second class in your own country" or "a free person in your independent state" were expected to further strain political tensions.

Reports in January 2010 that Kiir would not contest April elections for Sudanese president, but would focus on re-election as president of Southern Sudan were interpreted to mean that the SPLM priority was independence.

Kiir was re-elected with 93% of the vote in the 2010 South Sudanese election.

Although the vote on both the national and sub-national level was criticized by democratic activists and international observers, the overwhelming margin of Kiir's re-election was noted by some media as being "Step One" in the process of secession.

Following his re-election, Omar al-Bashir reappointed Kiir as the First Vice President of Sudan in accordance with the interim constitution.

South Sudanese voted overwhelmingly in favour of their independence from Sudan in January 2011, with 98.83% of voters reportedly preferring to split from the North.

On 9 July 2011, South Sudan became an independent state, with Kiir as its first president.

Kiir positioned himself as a reformer, using his inaugural address to call for the South Sudanese people "to forgive though we shall not forget" injustices imposed at the hands of the northern Sudanese over the preceding decades and announce a general amnesty for South Sudanese groups that had warred against the SPLM in the past.

A few weeks later, he publicly addressed members of the military and police to warn them that rape, torture, and other human rights violations carried out by armed personnel would be considered criminal acts and prosecuted aggressively by the Ministry of Justice.

His presidency was characterized as a period of reconstruction, albeit one marred by internal and foreign disputes.

Among these were the Heglig Crisis, which caused a border war with Sudan, and an internal political crisis in which attempts were made to overthrow him.

After rumours about a planned coup surfaced in Juba in late 2012, Kiir began reorganizing the senior leadership of his government, party and military on an unprecedented scale.

On 18 June 2013, Kiir issued an order lifting the immunity of two ministers in the national government pending investigations into an alleged corruption case in which they appeared to be implicated.

He also issued an order suspending Cabinet Affairs Minister Deng Alor Kuol and Finance Minister Kosti Manibe Ngai from their duties during the entire duration of the probe.

In July 2013, Kiir sacked his entire cabinet, including his vice president, Riek Machar, ostensibly to reduce the size of government.

However, Machar said that it was a step towards dictatorship and that he would challenge Kiir for the presidency.

He also dismissed Taban Deng Gai as Governor of Unity State.

Kiir told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that homosexuality is not in the "character" of Southern Sudanese people.

"It is not even something that anybody can talk about here in southern Sudan in particular. It is not there and if anybody wants to import or to export it to South Sudan, it will not get the support and it will always be condemned by everybody," he said.

He then went on to refer to homosexuality as a "mental disease" and a "bastion of Western immorality".

In January 2013, he replaced the inspector general of the national police service with a lieutenant from the army, and dismissed six deputy chiefs of staff and 29 major generals in the army.

In February 2013 Kiir retired an additional 117 army generals but this was viewed

as troublesome in regards to a power grab by others.