South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit said former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir attempted to influence the 2011 independence referendum, alleging that Arab leaders were involved in efforts to preserve Sudan’s unity.
Speaking on Saturday during celebrations marking the 34th anniversary of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) at Juba Stadium, Kiir said Bashir engaged several Arab leaders, including then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, then Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in the run-up to the referendum.
“They called me and offered $505 million, but I refused,” Kiir said, without providing further details. “The mistake would have been during the referendum, but it was avoided and now South Sudan is independent.”
“If we had accepted that money, our country would not have become independent,” he added.
“No one appreciates me, but I can appreciate myself because I did not accept the money offered,” Kiir said. “If I had taken it, our country would not have become independent.”
South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for secession in a January 2011 referendum held under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Sudan’s then ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), ending two decades of civil war.
Kiir urged citizens to honour those who died in the liberation struggle, naming SPLA founding figures including the late John Garang, Kerubino Kuanyin Bol and William Nyuon Bany, among others.
He also recounted his early involvement in the rebellion, saying he joined the SPLA in 1983 and describing an incident in which he and fellow fighters abandoned and sank a vehicle in the Sobat River to evade Sudanese government forces.
“The war of liberation is over, but the struggle now is for development,” Kiir said, acknowledging challenges including limited access to basic services such as schools and hospitals.
South Sudan became independent in July 2011 following the referendum provided for in the peace agreement. Kiir assumed leadership of the SPLM/A after John Garang’s death in a 2005 helicopter crash.
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