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South Sudan Minister Shot Dead

10 February 2011 04:01 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A South Sudan government minister has been shot to death, two days after poll results confirmed the region will become the world’s newest country, APA reports quoting â€œThe Voice of Americaâ€.

An army spokesman says the minister for rural development and cooperation, Jimmy Lemi Milla, and his bodyguard were killed at the ministry complex in the southern capital of Juba Wednesday.

The spokesman said the shooter, who is believed to have been the minister’s personal driver, killed himself.

The motive for the shooting is not clear, but officials say it may have been a personal matter.

The late minister is a former member of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party who later switched to the south’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

On Monday, officials released the final results of southern Sudan’s independence referendum. The results show nearly 99 percent of voters favored separation from the north.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir said he accepted the referendum’s outcome, which means that in July Africa’s largest nation will be split in two.

Southern Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has pledged cooperation with the north, vowing to join efforts in reducing Sudan’s foreign debt and lifting international trade sanctions.

The referendum was the product of the 2005 peace accord between the mainly Muslim north and the largely Christian south that ended a two-decade civil war.

The two sides still must resolve issues before July’s official secession, including control over the important oil-producing Abyei region, which straddles the north-south border.

There has been no formal announcement of the name of the new country, but indications are it will be called the Republic of South Sudan.