Salva Kiir Mayardit

On 18 June 2013, Kiir issued an order lifting the immunity of two ministers in the national government pending investigations into an alleged corruption case in which they appeared to be implicated. He also issued an order suspending Cabinet Affairs Minister Deng Alor Kuol and Finance Minister Kosti Manibe Ngai from their duties during the entire duration of the probe. In July 2013, Kiir sacked his entire cabinet, including his vice president, Riek Machar, ostensibly to reduce the size of government. However, Machar said that it was a step towards dictatorship and that he would challenge Kiir for the presidency.[17] He also dismissed Taban Deng Gai as Governor of Unity State.

Kiir told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that homosexuality is not in the "character" of Southern Sudanese people. "It is not even something that anybody can talk about here in southern Sudan in particular. It is not there and if anybody wants to import or to export it to South Sudan, it will not get the support and it will always be condemned by everybody," he said. He then went on to refer to homosexuality as a "mental disease" and a "bastion of Western immorality".[18]

1. In December 2011, 6,000 Lou Nuer armed child soldiers attacked Murle communities. According to investigations carried out by the UN, 800 people from both ethnic groups were killed between December 2011 and February 2012, while women and children were abducted and property was looted and destroyed.[19] Unbeknownst to large numbers of or the entire child soldier population, Kiir planned and had decided to agree to warlike stipends from the Obama administration beginning in 2012, regardless of an American law prohibiting aid to nations utilizing child soldiers created and passed in 2008.[20]
2. A lack of accountability and justice pertaining to the investigation, arrest and prosecution of the individuals who carried out the violence against civilians of both the Nuer and Murle ethnic groups is widely believed to have contributed massively to, if not categorically, the mass murders, as well as the continued perpetration of the ethnic violence.[19] Kiir established a figurehead "Investigation Committee" with an ostentatious mandate to investigate those responsible for the mass murders and murders, but as of January 2013 no finances had been allocated to the "Investigation Committee" or any of its members sworn in to commence the investigation and bring those to justice.[19]
3. Throughout the Jonglei disarmament "Operation Restore Peace" which began in March 2012 and continued throughout the year, soldiers were ordered to and assumed the responsibility of extrajudicial killings, severe beatings, binding people with rope, and torture to extract "information" regarding the whereabouts of weapons.

After rumours about a planned coup surfaced in Juba in late 2012, Kiir began reorganizing the senior leadership of his government, party and military on an unprecedented scale. In January 2013, he replaced the inspector general of the national police service with a lieutenant from the army, and dismissed six deputy chiefs of staff and 29 major generals in the army. In February 2013 Kiir retired an additional 117 army generals but this was viewed as troublesome in regards to a power grab by others. Kiir had also suggested that his rivals were trying to revive the rifts that had provoked infighting in the 1990s.[21]

On 7 May 2013 Kiir dismissed legal advisor Justice Ajonye Perpetua and deputy Foreign Minister Elias Nyamlell Wako. Kiir had announced that he would no longer tolerate criticism by members of his cabinet.[22] In July, Kiir sacked his entire cabinet, leading experts to warn of upcoming "a full-blown catastrophe".[21] On December 2013, Kiir accused his vice President and other Party members of plotting Coup' leading him to arrest those politicians[23]

Moi Peter Julius, who was a political reporter for a South Sudanese newspaper The Corporate, was found murdered late on the night of 19 August 2015 in a residential area of Juba after being shot twice from behind. His murder was committed three days after Kiir publicly and officially threatened journalists, stating that "freedom of the press does not mean that you work against your country. If anybody does not know that this country will kill people, we will demonstrate on them."[24] Earlier in 2015, five journalists by the names of Musa Mohamed (the director of the state-run radio station Raja FM), Adam Juma (reporter and presenter for Raja FM), Dalia Marko and Randa George (reporters for Raja FM), and Boutros Martin (a cameraman for the Western Bahr el Ghazal of South Sudan Television) had been murdered while traveling as part of a convoy, along with six other people. Tom Rhodes of the Committee to Protect Journalists stated after the murders that "The murder of five journalists is a devastating attack on South Sudan's already beleaguered press corps," and that "We urge Western Bahr el Ghazal authorities to do their utmost to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice, and to ensure journalists are allowed to carry out their duties safely."[25] At present, none of the parties responsible for ordering the murders or perpetrators of the crimes have been arrested, charged, or convicted.

Kiir with US President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., 5 August 2014

Kiir with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 30 October 2016

Kiir at the Russia–Africa Summit 2019 in Sochi on 24 October 2019

In mid-October 2011, Kiir announced South Sudan had applied for accession to the East African Community. He declared the EAC to be "at the centre of our hearts" due to its members' support of the South during the Sudanese civil wars.[26]

On 20 December 2011, Kiir visited Israel to thank it for its support during the First Sudanese Civil War from 1956 to 1972,[27] and met with Israeli president Shimon Peres to discuss establishing an embassy in Jerusalem, which would make South Sudan the first country to have one in that city.[28]

After the outbreak of the South Sudanese civil war, Salva Kiir delivered a speech in January 2014 lashing out at the United Nations and “so-called humanitarian organizations,” accusing them of supporting Riek Machar to try to overthrow him. He accused the UN of sheltering his enemies on their bases adding, “There is a problem with the international community, and it is something that people will have to thrash out with them.”[29]

In March 2014, Kiir's government organized a rally accusing the United Nations of colluding with anti-government forces. Protesters carried signs accusing the UN of arming anti-government forces.[30]

Relations between Kiir's government and some erstwhile supporters deteriorated since the start of the civil war. He disclosed in an op-ed published in his name in the Washington Times in October 2015 that unnamed "international partners in peace" had threatened his government with sanctions, the withdrawal of aid support, and referrals to the International Criminal Court.[31]

On 26 March 2012, the South Sudanese army attacked the oilfield in the town of Heglig (known also to the Dinka of the Unity state as Panthou), located between the border of the Sudanese state of South Kordofan and the South Sudanese state of Unity, triggering the Heglig Crisis. On 27 September, Kiir met Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and signed eight agreements in Addis Ababa,[32] Ethiopia, which led the way to resume important oil exports and create a 10-kilometre (6 mi) demilitarised zone along their border. The agreements allow for the return of 56,000,000 litres (350,000 barrels) of South Sudanese oil to the world market. In addition, the agreements include an understanding of the parameters to follow in regards to demarcating their border, an economic cooperation agreement and a deal to protect each other's citizens. Certain issues remain unsolved and future talks are scheduled to resolve them.

On 25 November 2012, South Sudan launched a formal complaint to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) against Sudan in the wake of aerial bombings carried out by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in parts of South Sudan's northern Bahr el Ghazal state, killing at least eight people and injuring an equal number. South Sudan treated the attack as a gross violation of the cooperation agreement the two country's leaders signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 27 September.[33]

In September 2013, an article appeared on the South Sudan News Agency website.[34] The article was authored by a South Sudanese analyst by the name Duop Chak Wuol. In his writings, Duop criticized the ruling SPLM party and warned of widespread consequences if party doesn't fix its growing autocratic policies. Duop also predicted negative results the young nation would face if a civil war break out. Tensions rose between Kiir and his former vice president Riek Machar in December 2013 in the lead-up to a meeting of the National Liberation Council (NLC) of the ruling SPLM party. After two days of NLC meetings, on the night of 15 December 2013 shooting erupted within Salva Kiir's Presidential Guards. The next day, Kiir denounced Machar and other senior SPLM officials for staging a failed coup against his government, a claim later denied by Machar and others. These events marked the start of the South Sudanese Civil War.[35] About 400,000 people were estimated to have been killed in the war by April 2018, including notable atrocities such as the 2014 Bentiu massacre.[36]

According to a Saudi Arabian diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks in June 2015, the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum had previously alerted the Saudi Arabian government of an assassination plot against Kiir by members of the Egyptian and Sudanese intelligence agencies.[37]

Kiir is reported to be the part-owner of ABMC Thai-South Sudan Construction Company Limited. With Garang Deng Aguer and Benjamin Bol Mel According to a report by Radio Tamazuj, however, Kiir's shares are not held directly but may be concealed in the name of a close associate. Ties between Kiir and the company were denied by Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek. The company was awarded at least $161 million in government roads contracts.[38] The president's wife previously held shares in Yanyyom Mineral Water and Beverage Factory located in Juba. The factory took its name from Lake Yanyyom, located near the president's hometown Akon in Warrap State. Another owner of the factory was Garang Deng Aguer, a business magnate and former Governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.[39]

In the early months of 2017, parts of South Sudan experienced a famine following several years of instability in the country's food supply caused by civil war and drought. International humanitarian advocates stated the famine was manmade[40] and pointed to the country's ongoing conflict for creating the famine conditions. More than 3 million people had been displaced by ongoing violence across the country, forcing families to abandon agricultural land and livestock, leaving them with few food resources to survive with.[41] The worst fighting was in Unity State, where tens of thousands of people fled their homes due to a government offensive against opposition-held areas.[42]

Days after the declaration of famine, the government raised the price of a business visa from $100 to $10,000, mostly aimed at aid workers, citing a need to increase government revenue.[43] U.N. officials said that Kiir was blocking food deliveries to some areas.[44]

Kiir with United States President George W. Bush, 15 November 2007

In 2006, when visiting the White House, Kiir received a black stetson as a gift from U.S. President George W. Bush. He reportedly liked it so much that he purchased several. He now rarely makes public appearances without wearing one.[45]

In a politically charged social issue, it has been claimed that Kiir secretly married the daughter of former comrade, the late William Nyuon Bany, an ethnic Nuer and former leader of the SPLA. Allegedly, a traditional Dinka ceremony was conducted by his brothers. This led to strife between Kiir's eldest daughter and Aluel William Nyuon Bany.[46] Kiir has not publicly commented on the allegation. According to media reports in Kenya, "Kiir's in-laws" have requested privacy.[47]

On 13 December 2022, Kiir appeared at the inauguration of a road project, and the television broadcast of the event captured footage of Kiir wetting himself and making a puddle on the ground, while he and others attending the event stood for the South Sudanese national anthem.[48][49] The footage went viral internationally, and the incident was attributed to the possibility that Kiir was suffering from a urinary tract infection.[50] On 18 December, it was reported that some of the journalists who had covered the incident were missing, and at least one was dead.[49] On 6 January 2023, six TV team members from South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation were detained based on suspicion of distribution of unauthorized footage.[51]

• LeRiche, Matthew; Arnold, Matthew (2013). South Sudan: From Revolution to Independence. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199333400.