JUBA – South Sudan has erupted into jubilation as early referendum results leave no doubt a new country is about to be born, but the road to statehood remains littered with problems.
The demarcation of the border with the north, the sharing of oil revenues and the future of the disputed region of Abyei are only some of the contentious issues that need to be ironed out within six months. Preliminary results of the January 9-15 referendum on self-determination show that secession from the mainly Muslim north is favoured by close to 99 percent of voters in the Christian-dominated south.
While southern leaders are basking in the glow of a historical landmark in their decades-old struggle for independence, they also called for composure, reminding the population secession is not yet a reality.
The 2005 peace accord that ended more than 20 years of a north-south conflict in which about two million people were killed and around twice as many displaced provided for a transitional period that ends on July 9.
South Sudan should then become the world’s newest nation and Africa’s 55th state, but the interim period looks set to be packed with arduous negotiations between the two halves of what is still the continent’s largest country. “It might even be more complicated to negotiate than the Comprehensive Peace Agreement itself,” one Sudan-based observer said on condition of anonymity.
