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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, according to a video display of the vote seen by Reuters at the venue of the announcement.

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.
Sudan’s president yesterday 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 were due later yesterday 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,” President 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 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.
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.

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.
Hundreds of people started gathering in the blistering heat of the southern capital Juba on Monday to celebrate the results. — Reuters.