South Sudan votes for independence by a landslide

[The_Emperior5]

South Sudan votes for independence by a landslide
Tue Feb 8, 2011 11:28am GMT
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1 of 1Full SizeBy Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to declare independence in final results of a referendum announced on Monday, opening the door to Africa's newest state and a fresh period of uncertainty for the fractured region.

Hundreds of south Sudanese danced, screamed and waved flags as the announcement was broadcast on a line of TV sets in a square in the centre of the southern capital Juba.

A total of 98.83 percent of voters from Sudan's oil-producing south chose to secede from the north in last month's referendum, the chairman of the vote's organising commission Mohammed Ibrahim Khalil said.

The formal announcement in Khartoum was disrupted by one northern woman who began wailing in grief and was led from the room. "Sudan is one country. Why should it separate?" she told journalists, saying she had relatives in the south.

The referendum is the climax of a 2005 north-south peace accord that set out to end Africa's longest civil war and instil democracy in a country that straddles the continent's Arab-sub Saharan divide.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir earlier said he accepted the result, allaying fears that the split could reignite conflict over the control of the south's oil reserves.

"Today we received these results and we accept and welcome these results because they represent the will of the southern people," he said in an address on state TV.

Southern officials say the question of a name for the new state is unresolved but it could become just "South Sudan."

[The_Emperior5]

They deserve it after 50 years of enslavement Free at last the south sudanes people 9 July they will be africas newest country

[KingMJ]

98.83 wow waa aad badaan

If they did the vote in Somaliland for Independence we could make it 100% so mahaa

[Cumar-Labasuul]

what will they be known as, republic of south sudan?

anyway welcome africa's newest nation

[Jamac_Yare]

how will this help somaliland

[The_Emperior5]

how will this help somaliland

african borders are not sacred any more

[The_Emperior5]

what will they be known as, republic of south sudan?

anyway welcome africa's newest nation

I dont think they have a name yet but i think south sudan will do it
any how there is a big party in juba right now

[Jamac_Yare]

how will this help somaliland

african borders are not sacred any more

so then there can be a awdalland dhulbahanteland warsankakageliland within the somaliland bracket since they dont want to be called somaliland

[somaliland10]

great stuff...inshallah somailand next