Salva Kiir, President of South Sudan On July 9, 2011, South Sudan becomes an independent country. Salva Kiir becomes President. In the late 1960s, Kiir joined the Anyanya 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 More →