South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to declare independence in final results of a referendum announced today, 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 per cent 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 Khalid said.
Earlier today, Sudan's president accepted the vote, and Sudan is now expected to split in two on July 9th.
"Today we received these results and we accept and welcome these results because they represent the will of the southern people," Mr Omar Hassan al-Bashir said in an address on state TV.
The referendum is the climax of a 2005 north-south peace deal that set out to end Africa's longest civil war, reunite the divided country and instill democracy in a land that straddles the continent's Arab-sub Saharan divide.
Mr Bashir's comments allayed fears that the split could reignite conflict over the control of the south's oil reserves. South Sudan's leader Salva Kiir added to the conciliatory mood by promising he would help Khartoum campaign for the forgiveness of the country's crippling debts and the easing of international trade sanctions in coming months.
Mr Kiir praised Bashir for accepting the result. "President Bashir and [Bashir's northern] National Congress Party deserve a reward," he told a meeting of Sudan's cabinet in Khartoum broadcast on state TV.
Both sides did avoid major outbreaks of violence over the past five years. But they failed to overcome decades of deep mutual distrust to persuade southerners to embrace unity.
The US State Department said today it is initiating the process to remove Sudan from the US state sponsors of terrorism list but stressed it would only be dropped if it met all criteria under US law.
Reuters