Joyous people poured onto the streets, danced and kissed the earth to mark the oil-rich South Sudan becoming the world's newest country on 10th july 2011 Saturday, with international leaders, including Vice President Hamid Ansari, witnessing history unfolding in the country's capital in Juba.
Splitting away from Khartoum-ruled north after decades of civil war that claimed nearly two million lives, South Sudan was declared a sovereign nation by its President Salva Kiir Mayardit at a colourful noon hour ceremony attended by United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon and Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. The new nation has become 193rd country to be recognized by the UN and the 54th member state from Africa.MORE PHOTOS
Official name-South Sudan
Form of government-republic with two legislative bodies
Head of state and government-President Salva Kiir Mayardit
Capital-Juba
Official language-English
Official religion-none
Monetary unit-Sudanese pound (country will use the
same currency as Sudan for at least 6
months after independence)
same currency as Sudan for at least 6
months after independence)
Population-(2010 est.) 8,973,607
Total area-248,777 square miles (644,330 square km)
Salva Kiir Mayardit, a former rebel leader who is South Sudan's first president, said his people cannot forget years of bloodshed but must now forgive and move forward. He vowed his people would never again be marginalized. "As we celebrate our freedom and independence today, I want to assure the people of Darfur, Abyei and South Kordofan, we have not forgotten you," he said referring to three conflict-mired regions. "When you cry, we cry," he said. "When you bleed, we also bleed.
Salva Kiir Mayardit
Born-1951 (age 60)
Bahr el Ghazal, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (now South Sudan)
Political party-Sudan People's Liberation Movement
Religion-Roman Catholicism
Kiir is a Dinka, though of a different clan than former Southern Sudan president John Garang. 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 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 had little military field experience and relied upon the more experienced Anyanya veterans, including Kiir, to actually carry out the ground war. Kiir eventually rose to head the SPLA's military wing. Read More