SUDAN/FILE: After half a century of strife, Sudan's south is finally set for independence
Record ID:
1533343
SUDAN/FILE: After half a century of strife, Sudan's south is finally set for independence
- Title: SUDAN/FILE: After half a century of strife, Sudan's south is finally set for independence
- Date: 8th July 2011
- Summary: SCHOOL CHILDREN PRACTICE DANCE MOVEMENTS FOR INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS VARIOUS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN PRACTISING SUDAN BAND LEADER DIRECTING SCHOOL CHILDREN ON DANCE SCHOOL CHILDREN DANCING
- Embargoed: 22nd July 2011 22:02
- Keywords:
- Location: Sudan
- Country: Sudan
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA62YFXJJFBOG0N77I96S7LYVIB
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: After fighting for more than 48 years, southern Sudanese were preparing for their independence on Thursday (July 7).
On the streets of Juba, southerners joyfully expressed their emotions with hundreds of traditional dancers joining the military for rehearsals as they await Saturday (July 9).
Military officers, traditional dancers and school children dressed in colourful traditional regalia as residents watched on the side.
John Amuri Rual, whose group specialises on jumping dances, urged those southerners still in diaspora communities to return and help rebuild their nation as fighting has technically come to an end.
"The war that we fought for 48 years is over, God has given us our privilege so whoever is in the diaspora should come back and develop our country as without them we can not march," traditional dancer John Amuri Rual said.
The mausoleum site where celebrations are meant to take place this weekend is still under construction.
Ambassador John Andrew Duku, the official charged with overseeing the ground work for the celebrations there, said the continent's tallest flag pole was intended to be symbolic.
"This pole is the tallest ever pole, flag pole put in the soil of Africa, for us its pride because southern Sudan is probably is maybe one of the last countries to get independent in Africa," said Ambassador John Andrew Duku an official with southern Sudan government.
The split of the oil-producing south from the north was agreed in a January referendum, itself promised in a 2005 peace deal.
Both sides fought each other during decades of civil war, and have yet to agree on the position of their shared border and how they will manage oil revenues. The north's army and south-linked fighters have also been clashing in Southern Kordofan, the north's main oil state in recent days.
More than 73,000 civilians have fled since clashes between the northern army and south-linked forces started in early June in the northern oil-producing state that borders the south, according to U.N. reports.
The violence has clouded preparations for the independence of south Sudan and raised fears that fighting could spread south over the border.
As Sudan prepares to lose its south, activists have accused Khartoum of trying to stamp its authority on rebellious areas left on the northern side of the border.
Southern Kordofan is important to the north because it has the most productive oil fields that will remain under Khartoum's control after the split. The south could take as much as 75 percent of Sudan's 500,000 barrels per day of oil output.
Southerners overwhelmingly voted to declare independence in a January referendum, a vote that was the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended the last north/south civil war. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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