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Salva Kiir Mayardit
First president of South Sudan; SPLA independence leader
The guerrilla commander who led the world's youngest nation into being — and faced the cost of holding it together.
The rise
Kiir joined the Anyanya movement as a teenager and rose through the ranks of the Sudan People's Liberation Army under John Garang. After Garang's death in 2005, Kiir led the movement through the referendum that created South Sudan in 2011, becoming the new nation's first president.