Southern Sudan awaits referendum confirmation of split from north

Feb 7, 2011, 13:17 GMT

Nairobi - Southern Sudan was Monday awaiting official confirmation of preliminary referendum results showing overwhelming backing for secession from the north.

January's referendum was enshrined in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between the mainly Muslim north and Christian and Animist south.

Figures published on the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission's website, which showed just short of 99 per cent of almost 4 million voters had opted for independence, were expected to be formally confirmed in Khartoum late Monday.

The referendum process had raised fears of a return to war, but Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and his northern party have repeatedly said they will accept the south's decision to secede.

While the poll was generally peaceful, more than 70 died during fighting between northern and southern tribes in the restive border region of Abyei as voting kicked off. Dozens of people were killed at the weekend when soldiers clashed in Southern Sudan's Upper Nile State.

More than two million southerners died and four million were displaced in Sudan's 1983-2005 north-south civil war, which was essentially a continuation of the 1955-1972 conflict that followed independence from joint British and Egyptian rule.

Many issues remain to be resolved post-referendum, including the final demarcation of the north-south border, which bisects Sudan's oilfields and leaves most of the precious commodity in the south. The status of Abyei also has to be decided.

While southerners are elated at the prospect of independence, aid agencies say the impoverished region faces huge challenges. Southern Sudan has only a few dozens kilometres of paved road in a country the size of France and has appalling development indicators.

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