Salva Kiir Mayardit

On 10 and 11 April South Sudan's rival warring leaders President Salva Kiir Mayardit and former Vice-President Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon met at the Vatican face to face for perhaps the last time before the two sides are due to form a unity government in May...

The government army loyal to President Salva Kiir Mayardit (now known as the South Sudan People's Defence Force – SSPDF) has made common cause with Riek Machar's SPLA-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) in a joint offensive against members of the National Salvation Front which backs the Equatorian strongman Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka in his refusal to sign last year's Khartoum Peace Agreement (AC Vol 59 No 19 No cash no peace)...

President Salva Kiir's forces have tried to kill him at least twice...

Measures to be taken first include the confinement of fighting forces to barracks the demilitarisation of Juba and other populated areas and a commission to redraw the federal state boundaries imposed by President Salva Kiir...

Worryingly for Salva Kiir Mayardit ex-army-chief-turned-rebel 'King' Paul Malong Awan remains completely outside the process representing a big threat from his home area the western Dinka heartland of northern Bahr el Ghazal (AC Vol 59 No 10 Splits and special pleas)...

Insiders are sceptical the deal will hold especially after President Salva Kiir Mayardit refused to shake hands on it with arch-rival Riek Machar at the signing...

Another routine foreign ministry attack on the Troika (the United Kingdom United States and Norway) followed its forlorn effort to persuade President Salva Kiir Mayardit to veto his parliament's decision to extend the government's term by three years...

One of the main reasons for the failure of the 2015 deal was that when the document was presented to Salva Kiir for signature he crossed out numerous clauses that he didn't like leaving plenty of room for future disagreement...

The only opponent to stand against Salva Kiir Mayardit in the 2010 presidential election...

The previous talks ended when President Salva Kiir and the Juba delegation insisted that Machar have no further role in the process – much to the chagrin of the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who had organised their face-to-face meeting complete with the awkward but obligatory group hug...

Odinga's reward is to be Kenya's special envoy to African trouble spots; hence his meeting with South Sudan's President Salva Kiir in Juba on 25 May followed by discussions with rebel leader Riek Machar in South Africa on 8 June...

In April the unity of President Salva Kiir Mayardit's Dinka-dominated alliance fractured further when his former army chief Paul Malong Awan announced the formation of yet another opposition movement the South Sudan United Front...