KHARTOUM, (Reuters) – Sudan’s president today said he accepted a southern vote for independence in a referendum that is set to create Africa’s newest state and open up a fresh period of uncertainty in the increasingly volatile region.
Final results from the plebiscite are due later today but preliminary figures show 98.83 percent of voters from Sudan’s oil-producing south chose to secede from the north. Sudan is now expected to split in two on July 9.
“Today we received these results and we accept and welcome these results because they represent the will of the southern people,” Bashir said in an address on state TV.
Bashir earlier told supporters he knew the vote was for secession.
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 instil democracy in a land that straddles the continent’s Arab-sub Saharan divide.
Bashir’s comments allayed fears that the split could reignite conflict over the control of the south’s oil reserves.
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.
Hundreds of people started gathering in the blistering heat of the southern capital Juba today to celebrate the official results.
“Today I don’t fear war anymore, it is the past … Our leaders have made friends with the north, but for me, I can never forgive them for what I have seen. I don’t hate them now, but I never want to see them again,” said Riak Maker, 29, as men drummed and women ululated around him.
