Thaindian News

Juba, July 9 (IANS) Tens of thousands of South Sudanese Saturday watched the raising of their country’s flag at an independence ceremony in the capital Juba, BBC reported.

South Sudan became the 193rd country recognised by the UN and the 54th UN member state in Africa.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and UN chief Ban Ki-moon were among dignitaries who came for the event.

South Sudan became the world’s newest nation at midnight, the climax of a process made possible by the 2005 peace deal that ended a long civil war, BBC said.

Sudan earlier became the first state to officially recognise its new neighbour.

The south’s independence follows decades of conflict with the north in which some 1.5 million people died.

Celebrations in Juba began at midnight (2100 GMT). A countdown clock in the city centre reached zero and the new national anthem was played on television.

The BBC’s Will Ross in Juba says the new country’s problems were put aside for the night amid an air of great jubilation.

People were in the streets cheering, waving South Sudan flags, banging drums and chanting the name of President Salva Kiir Mayardit, he adds.

On Saturday, a formal independence ceremony was held at the mausoleum of the late rebel leader John Garang, who died just months after signing the peace deal that ended Africa’s longest-running conflict.

BBC says South Sudanese flocked to the event on a baking hot day - some of them even climbing trees to get a view of what was going on.

There is celebratory mood and there is a heartfelt display of excitement mixed with relief that after so many years of feeling oppressed the tie with the north has finally been cut, Ross says.

The Speaker of the South Sudan Legislative Assembly, James Wani Igga, read out the Proclamation of the Independence of South Sudan.

Afterwards, crowds cheered as Sudan’s national flag was lowered and the flag of South Sudan was raised.

Earlier, Bashir arrived at Juba airport where he was greeted by Kiir, BBC said.

Other attendees include former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the US permanent representative to the UN, Susan Rice, and the head of the US military’s Africa Command, Gen Carter Ham.

Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, a referendum was held on independence, which was approved by more than 99 percent of voters.

The new country is rich in oil, but one of the least developed countries in the world, where one in seven children dies before the age of five, BBC said.

Unresolved disputes between the north and south, particularly over the new border, have also raised the possibility of renewed conflict.

President Bashir, who agreed the 2005 peace deal with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), stressed his country’s “readiness to work with our southern brothers and help them set up their state so that, God willing, this state will be stable and develop”, according to the BBC.