Kiir pledges peace as South Sudan marks decade of independence

President vows not to return the country to war as the world’s youngest nation marks 10 years of independence.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has pledged not to return the country to war during a speech marking 10 years since independence. At midnight on July 9, 2011, raucous celebrations erupted as the world’s newest nation was born and the people of South Sudan cheered the end of a decades-long struggle for statehood from Sudan. But just two years later, oil-rich South Sudan was plunged into a brutal civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and forced millions from their homes.