The Dinka people are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile,from Mangalla-Bor to Renk,in the region of Bahr el Ghazal,Upper Nile,and the Abyei Area of the Ngok Dinka in South Sudan.
Dr. John Garang De Mabior was a Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader. From 1983 to 2005,he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement as a commander in chief during the Second Sudanese Civil War. He briefly served as First Vice President of Sudan for three weeks,from the comprehensive peace agreement of 2005 until his death in a helicopter crash on July 30,2005. A developmental economist by profession,Garang was one of the major influences on the movement that led to the foundation of South Sudan’s independence from the rule of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.
Salva Kiir Mayardit,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.
Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon is a South Sudanese politician who has served as the First Vice President of South Sudan since 2020.
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,the SPLM and the 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.
Dr.Lam Akol Ajawin,is a South Sudanese politician of Shilluk descent. He is the current leader of National Democratic Movement (NDM) party. He is a former high-ranking official in the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA),and subsequently became the Foreign Minister of Sudan from September 2005 to October 2007,when the Khartoum government offered the SPLA several other key ministries as part of a peace agreement.
Daniel Koat Mathews,popularly known as DK Mathews,was a prominent politician and Nuer leader,who held several government positions and has been effectively involved in the national politics for many years. He was a major general in the Sudan People's Liberation Army now known as South Sudan People's Defense Forces.
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.
Lieutenant General Nhial Deng Nhial is a South Sudanese politician and a member of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). He was Minister of Foreign Affairs 2011 to 2013 and 2018 to 2019 after having served as the caretaker Minister of Defense since 10 July 2011. Prior to that he served as the pre-independence South Sudanese Minister of SPLA and Veteran Affairs,from 22 December 2008 until 9 July 2011.
Lt Gen Dominic Dim Deng was a senior member of the Sudan People's Liberation Army,a distinguished military veteran general and the first defence minister in the Government of Southern Sudan who lost his life alongside his wife Madam Josephine Apieu Jenaro Aken,senior politician Dr. Justin Yac Arop and 18 other Sudan People's Liberation Army and Government of Southern Sudan officials on a leased CEM Air Beechcraft 1900 that crashed 375 km west of Juba,Sudan on May 2,2008.
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.
Dr. Toby Maduot Parek,was the chairman of the Sudan African National Union (SANU),a member of parliament in the government of southern Sudan (GOSS) Legislative Assembly,and a member of the Sudanese Group for Human Rights (SGHR).
Josephine Apieu Jenaro Aken,a member of the Luo group from the Bahr el Ghazal area,was born in Wau,Western Bahr el Ghazal,South Sudan. She was a member of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.
Kerubino Kuanyin Bol was a Sudanese rebel leader who 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 and was said to have fired the first shot in the conflict.
Daniel Awet Akot is the deputy Speaker of the National Legislative Assembly of South Sudan.
Elijah Malok Aleng was a South Sudanese public servant,general,and politician,from [Twic Dinka/Twi East county] in Jonglei State. He was born on 28 November 1937 at Thianwong village when his family was living among the Pen people in Angakuei in Baidit,about 20 miles northeast of Bor town. His family,which is originally from Awulian in Wangulei,Twic East County,migrated back to be with fellow Awulian kinfolks. He attended Malek Primary School (1950–1953),and then Juba Intermediate School and Juba Commercial Senior Secondary School,graduating He then attended Free University of the Congo,in the present Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),and later got a scholarship to study in Fribourg Catholic University,Switzerland,from which he obtained a master's degree in economics in 1972. In 1975 he obtained another Masters in Development Studies and Economic Planning from Wolfson College,Cambridge in the United Kingdom. In his memoirs:the Southern Sudan:Struggle for Liberty,named Chief Deng Biar Abit,leader of the Awulian clan,Paul Logali,former finance minister of Southern Sudan regional government and Akec Kwai Biar,former Bor District Commissioner and his cousin as the people who positively influenced him.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition,also known as the anti-governmental forces (AGF),is a mainly South Sudanese political party and rebel group that split from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in 2013,due to political tensions between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar over leadership of the SPLM. Tensions grew between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar and South Sudan plunged into the South Sudanese Civil War.
Peter Par Jiek was a brigadier general of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA),and veteran of the Second Sudanese Civil War. In the course of that conflict,Par fought under Riek Machar with several rebel and pro-government groups,and eventually became a powerful militia commander in Unity State. In that region,he established his own fiefdom and gained some notoriety for his rivalry with another rebel leader,Peter Gadet. Even though he had followed Machar during the whole Second Sudanese Civil War until 2005,Par sided with President Salva Kiir Mayardit upon the outbreak of the South Sudanese Civil War in 2013. Leading pro-government counter-insurgency forces in Wau State since 2014,Par was eventually ambushed and killed by SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Machar in 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.
Professor Elias Nyamlell Wako is a South Sudanese academic and politician.
