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. 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. Early life 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. His father, Kuethpiny Thiik Atem (d. 2007), was a cattle herder who belongs 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 belongs to the Payii clan. Sudanese civil wars 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 the 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. South Sudanese politics 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