In the first official preliminary result announcement, a referendum official stated on Sunday that over 99 percent of Southern Sudanese voted to secede from the north.
"The vote for separation was 99.57 percent," Chan Reek Madut announced in a speech to a crowd in the South’s capital of Juba, as reported by Reuters. Madut is the deputy head of the referendum commission that organized the referendum.
Voter turnout in the South was 99 percent. Madut also said that over 60 percent of Southern Sudanese living in the north turned out to vote, with 58 percent of them voting to secede.
The chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, said 99 percent of the Southern Sudanese diaspora in eight nations also voted to secede.
This means that after decades of civil war and ongoing tension between the northern and southern governments, it seems as if the south will finally become its own country, although there will be plenty of details to iron out including the fact that the South is rich with oil, whilst the North possesses the oil refineries.
It was greatly feared that further tension would break out between the mainly Arab Muslim North and African Christian and animist South during the week long referendum, but thankfully none occurred.
Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir is expected to lead the independent South, and has already urged all Southern Sudanese to forgive the North for the years of violence during the civil war. Over 1.9 million people died during the war between the North and South and more than 500 churches were destroyed in the South.
"For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of struggle, may God bless them with eternal peace,” said Kiir in a speech he made at the Catholic Cathedral in Juba on in January.
"And,” he continued, "may we, like Jesus Christ on the cross, forgive those who have forcefully caused their deaths."
The final official referendum results will be announced in early February.