Front: John Garang de Mabior (1945-2005), Sudanese politician and rebel leader

Dr. John Garang led the Sudan People's Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War from 1983 to 2005. He later served as Unofficial President of South Sudan from January 2005 until he died in a July 2005 helicopter crash.

Back: Giraffes

Front: John Garang de Mabior (1945-2005), Sudanese politician and rebel leader

Back: Giant eland

Front: John Garang de Mabior (1945-2005), Sudanese politician and rebel leader

Back: Cape buffalo

Front: John Garang de Mabior (1945-2005), Sudanese politician and rebel leader

Back: Beisa Oryx

South Sudan, a landlocked country in East Africa, is bordered by Ethiopia to the east; Kenya to the southeast; Uganda to the south; the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southwest; the Central African Republic to the west; and Sudan to the north.

South Sudan was part of the British and Egyptian condominium of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and became part of the Republic of the Sudan when independence was achieved in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. Later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011. On 14 July 2011, South Sudan became a United Nations member state. It joined the African Union on 28 July 2011. For a more detailed country profile, see CIA World Factbook on South Sudan.