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Salva Kiir Mayardit
2nd President of Southern Sudan
Incumbent
Assumed office  July 30, 2005 Acting until August 11, 2005
Vice President	Riek Machar
Preceded by	John Garang
12th First Vice President of Sudan
In office August 11, 2005 – September 19, 2009
Preceded by	John Garang Vacant from July 30, 2005 to August 11, 2005
Succeeded by	TBD
1st Vice President of Southern Sudan
In office January 9, 2005 – August 11, 2005
President	John Garang
Succeeded by	Riek Machar
Born	1951 Bahr al-Ghazal
Political party	SPLM

Salva Kiir Mayardit (born 1951) is the President of autonomous Government of Southern Sudan and the successor to the post of First Vice President of Sudan, following the death of John Garang in a crash on 30 July 2005. A founding member of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), he was chosen by the SPLA leaders to continue the peace process that formally ended the Second Sudanese Civil War in January 2005, but due to the independent (September 19, 2009 for Southern Sudan) that was recently declared, Salva Kiir remain the standing president of Southern Sudan. Like Garang, he is of the Dinka tribe, which is the most numerous in the south, but is from a different clan.

In the late 1960s, Kiir had joined the Anya-nya in the First Sudanese Civil War. By the time of the peace deal of 1972, he had become an officer in the rebel forces and found a position in the regular army. When John Garang joined an army mutiny that he had been sent to quell in 1983 in Bor, Kiir and many other Southern Sudanese leaders joined with Garang to found the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), and rose to head its military wing, the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army).

Kiir was involved in the early stages of negotiating the peace treaty that ended the civil war and is well-known to Khartoum politicians. He was sworn in as a Vice President of the Government of the Republic of Sudan on 11 August 2005 to September 19, 2009.

Salva Kiir (left) with Robert Zoellick in Washington D.C. on November 1, 2005

Meeting with George W. Bush in July 2006

[edit] External links

• Profile: Salva Kiir, BBC News, 2 August 2005
• Kiir's Speech on First Visit to Washington, at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 4 November 2005

Preceded by John Garang	President of Southern Sudan 2005 - present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by New title	Vice President of Southern Sudan 2005	Succeeded by Riek Machar
Preceded by John Garang	First Vice President of Sudan 2005-2009	Succeeded by TBD

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