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World’s Newest Nation To Be Called South Sudan

17 February 2011 01:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The southern part of Sudan, which decided to secede through a referendum last month, will be known as South Sudan when it becomes the world’s newest nation on July 9, APA reports quoting â€œRTT Newsâ€.
This was decided at the politburo meeting of the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Juba on Tuesday, the party’s Secretary-General Pagan Amum told reporters.
"We will be asking the government of South Sudan, and the Parliament, and our caucus of SPLM, to vote for the name of a country that will be called South Sudan, he added.
The decision has to be ratified by the Southern Parliament, which is dominated by SPLM.
Amum said negotiations were on with the North’s ruling National Congress Party on outstanding issues that have to be resolved before partition, and warned of the challenges ahead, as "we are a baby nation that has just been born....and fragile." He made it clear that the seceded region of Sudan has no intention of continuing to split the proceeds from oil revenue, but will only pay a fee for using the pipelines that transport the oil to Port Sudan.
The government of Southern Sudan has plans to introduce a new currency, and the SPLM would split into separate northern and southern sections.
The people of South Sudan overwhelmingly voted in January for independence, which will divide Africa’s largest country into two and give birth to world’s next nation.
The referendum was one of the consequences of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) that ended decades of north-south civil war.
Reports say a vote for independence will throw Southern Sudan, a region rampant with corruption and illiteracy and without any paved roads, into huge challenges.
The vote for independence means the South can control almost 80 per cent of Sudan’s immense oil resources, but the port used to ship it abroad is in the North.
National oil exploration companies of Malaysia, India, and China are helping that impoverished country for the third-biggest output in sub-Saharan Africa with a daily production of 490,000 barrels of crude oil.
A separate referendum on whether the oil-rich southern region of Abyei should become part of Southern Sudan has been postponed due to conflict over demarcation and residency rights.
The countries and organizations that witnessed the signing of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 have urged parties to the deal "to redouble their efforts to reach agreement on the outstanding CPA and post-referendum issues."
They demanded that the status of Abyei must be resolved in a way that respected the rights and interests of affected populations.
They also urged signatories of the deal to conduct popular consultations in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states in a timely and inclusive manner, and to settle the demarcation of the common border and the status of disputed areas.
The United States has initiated process to remove the Sudanese government from its terrorism blacklist in recognition of the success of the Southern Sudan referendum.
Violence has reignited concerns for the security of South Sudan, as last week, more than 200 people were killed in attacks unleashed by fighters loyal to rebel leader George Athor in the oil-rich Jonglei state bordering the North.