page_title: Salva Kiir Mayardit
section_title: Presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Salva Kiir Mayardit / Presidency
caption_attribution_description: Omar al-Bashir (R), the president of Sudan, watches a ceremony celebrating the birth of South Sudan with Salva Kiir Mayardit, the former commander of the rebels who fought Bashir and now the president of the world's newest nation.
context_page_description: Salva Kiir Mayardit, also known as Salva Kiir, is a South Sudanese politician who has been President of South Sudan since its independence in 2011. Prior to independence, he was 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 in 2005, following the death of John Garang.
context_section_description: South Sudanese voted overwhelmingly in favour of 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 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 with 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.
caption: Omar al-Bashir (Right), President of Sudan, watches a ceremony celebrating the founding of South Sudan with Mayardit in 2011.
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