John Garang de Mabior was a Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) after the Second Sudanese Civil War, the comprehensive peace agreement of 2005 was signed and he briefly served as First Vice President of Sudan for 3 weeks until his death in a helicopter crash on July 30, 2005. A developmental economist by profession, Garang was a major influence on the movement that led to the foundation of South Sudan.
Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon is a South Sudanese politician who serves as the First Vice President of South Sudan.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as the political wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Army in 1983. On January 9, 2005 the SPLA, SPLM and Government of Sudan signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ending the civil war. SPLM then obtained representation in the Government of Sudan, and was the main constituent of the Government of the then semi-autonomous Southern Sudan. When South Sudan became a sovereign state on 9 July 2011, SPLM became the ruling party of the new republic. SPLM branches in Sudan separated themselves from SPLM, forming the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North. Further factionalism appeared as a result of the 2013-2014 South Sudanese Civil War, with President Salva Kiir leading the SPLM-Juba and former Vice President Riek Machar leading the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition.
The SPLA-Nasir was a splinter faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), a rebel group that fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War. Originally created as an attempt by the Nuer tribe to replace SPLA leader John Garang in August 1991, it gradually became coopted by the government. The break away of Riek Machar from SPLM/A resulted in Nuer ethnic group massacring Garang's ethnic Dinka from Bor in the Bor massacre in 1991. This split resulted in the 1994 National Convention of New Sudan in Chukudum.
Paul Gatguat Gatluak Mut was a Southern Sudanese politician who was also one of the founders of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). He was appointed third in command after John Garang and Kerubino Kuanyin Bol. While he worked as a commander of the SPLA he lived in Itang, a small Ethiopian town in the Gambela Region. In September 1992 he defected from the SPLA to join another faction under Riek Machar, but he rejoined the SPLA before he was assassinated on 13 January 1996.
Arok Thon Arok was a politician from Southern Sudan. He was one of five senior commanders of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), before defecting.
Kuol Manyang is a South Sudanese politician. He is a member of the SPLM. He became governor of Jonglei state on 15 December 2007, following the first former governor, Philip Thon Leek from Dinka Bor, to curb cattle raiding and abduction of children in the region.
The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the army of the Republic of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a key participant of the Second Sudanese Civil War, led by John Garang. After Garang's death in 2005, Salva Kiir was named the SPLA's new Commander-in-Chief. As of 2010, the SPLA was divided into divisions of 10,000–14,000 soldiers.
Gabriel Gatwech Chan, more commonly known by the nickname Tang-Ginye or Tanginye meaning "long pipe", was a Nuer and a commander in various primarily Nuer rebel militias in South Sudan. General Tanginye led a southern border militia allied to the Khartoum government during Sudan's civil war. Members of the Sudanese armed forces loyal to Tanginye in Malakal clashed with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in 2006, killing about 150 people, and in 2009 in breach of the peace deal. In April 2011, clashes between his militia and the SPLA in the state of Jonglei killed at least 57 according to government officials. Shortly thereafter, Tanginye surrendered to SPLA forces and was placed under house arrest in Juba awaiting charges against him. During the South Sudanese Civil War, he allied with the SPLA-IO and later Lam Akol's militia, a Juba linked rebel group called the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and became its chief of staff. In January 2017 he visited a NDM-allied group, the Tiger Faction New Forces, in the Hamra area in the northern Upper Nile. In course of this visit, the Tigers were attacked by SPLM-IO-affiliated fighters belonging to the militia of John Uliny, and Tanginye was killed alongside most of the Tigers.
Deng Alor Kuol is a South Sudanese politician. Currently the minister of East African Community Affairs in President Salva Kiir's government, he is a member of the Ngok Dinka ethnic group, and was born in Abyei region, an oil-producing border region between Northern and Southern Sudan. More than 99% of Abyei's Ngok Dinka voted to be united with their fellow Dinka in neighbouring South Sudan. He’s also a brother to Achai Wiir, a South Sudanese renowned businesswomen.
Gordon Kong Chuol is a former militia commander in South Sudan, who fought for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and later for the forces led by Riek Machar during the Second Sudanese Civil War.
Kerubino Kuanyin Bol was one of the founders of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and one of the leaders of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005). He was said to have fired the first shot in that conflict, which flared up when the Khartoum government of Sudan imposed Islamic law, or Sharia, across the whole country, including the southern region which in 2011 became the Republic of South Sudan. The people in this region mainly follow the Christianity and/or a traditional animist religion.
Yohannes Yual Both was a leader of the South Sudan Defense Forces whose mobile forces gave the Sudan People's Liberation Army considerable difficulty during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005).
James Wani Igga is a South Sudanese who was the second vice president of South Sudan. He was speaker of the National Legislative Assembly from 2011 to 2013 and secretary general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. On 30 May 2020, he tested positive for COVID-19.
Telar Ring Deng was a South Sudanese politician and statesman. Telar died from Covid-19 related-complications on December 27, 2020 two days after announcing that he tested positive for Covid-19. At the time of his death Ambassador Telar was nominated to the Revitalized Transitional National Assembly by SPLM-IO, and was primed as the Minority Leader. This was after his appointment as minister was rejected. It is understood that President Kiir retracted his earlier position of allocating Lakes state to SPLM-IO after it became apparent to him that Dr. Riek had nominated Ambassador Telar for governorship. Telar was an Atout Dinka, hailing from Yirol. When the SPLA split, Telar sided with SPLA-Nasir. Together with Deng Ayuen Kurr, Telar was the most prominent Dinka leader in SPLA-Nasir. Telar and Deng accompanied Lam Akol during his two-month stay in Western Europe. However Telar and Deng left SPLA-Nasir after the Frankfurt talks, disappointed that separation had not been mentioned in the documents of the peace talks and the rapprochement between SPLA-Nasir and the Khartoum government. Telar and Deng returned to the mainstream faction of the SPLA/SPLM.
The South Sudanese Civil War was a multi-sided civil war in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. In December 2013, President Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup d'état. Machar denied trying to start a coup and fled to lead the SPLM – in opposition (SPLM-IO). Fighting broke out between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and SPLM-IO, igniting the civil war. Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside the South Sudanese government. The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
Simon Gatwech Dual is a Sudanese rebel Major General who was born in around the late 1930s in what is today Uror County, Jonglei state, South Sudan.
The Tiger Faction New Forces was a Shilluk militia that took part in the South Sudanese Civil War with the aim of reversing the division of South Sudan into 28 states in order to restore the territory of the Shilluk Kingdom per its 1956 borders. Led by Yoanis Okiech, the TFNF originally split from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in late October 2015 and subsequently started an insurgency against the SPLM government. In course of 2016, however, it also came into conflict with SPLM-IO rebels, leading to inter-rebel fighting which resulted in Okiech's death and the group's destruction in January 2017.
The South Sudan Patriotic Army is a South Sudanese rebel militia that takes part in the South Sudanese Civil War and serves as the military wing of Costello Garang Ring's South Sudan Patriotic Movement. Well armed and relatively numerous, the SSPA mostly operates in Northern Bahr el Ghazal and is considered to be one of the most powerful rebel groups in South Sudan.
The South Sudan Opposition Alliance is a coalition of political parties and armed groups in South Sudan that opposed the government of President Salva Kiir. It was formed in February 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by nine groups. In September the alliance acceded to a revised peace deal with the government that also included the main rebel faction, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, but some of the member groups disagreed with the decision and split from the alliance. The pro-deal SSOA has experienced continued tension between its members, as well as with the government.
SPLA (1983-1991)
SPLA-Nasir (1991-2002)