Sudan - Africa's biggest country ready to split?

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Sudan, Africa's largest country is almost destined to be split between North and South. Photo: NASA

Sudan is the biggest country in Africa - but now it is ready to split between north and south.

The split is expected to take place, as a means of addressing deep rooted, and almost intractable political and social problems.

Unresolved differences also exist along religious lines.

Northern Sudan is dominated by Arab Moslems, while Southern Sudan has black Christians and others who prefer traditional African religions. 

After years of planning, a historic voting exercise is underway involving millions in South Sudan who will be casting their votes to determine whether to remain with the rest of the country or become an independent country.

The voting will continue for one whole week, and the crucial result will not be known for about a month. 

Every indication is that the verdict will be a firm decision on independence for South Sudan.

While the South Sudanese are excited beyond description, the liberation they expect depends on a handsome turnout in the on-going referendum. This is because the 2005 peace agreement stipulates that for the vote to be valid, 60% of the 3.8 million registered voters must participate.

A confident South Sudanese leader Salva Kiir said "this is an historic moment the people of Southern Sudan have been waiting for."

Even the troubled Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir thinks so - and as a way of diffusing the shock that the split could represent, he says he would be the first to recognise South Sudan if it decided to secede. 

Northern and Southern Sudan have been at loggerheads for a very long time.

The two sides fought in a war that killed some two million people from 1983 to 2005. The war ended with a peace treaty which set the stage for the vote that is now underway.

Former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who is the chairman of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel on Sudan, says there is a sense of optimism among Southern Sudanese ahead of the vote.

"For them, this is a moment of liberation," he said, adding that the tragic aspect of
Sudanese history is that relations between the north and the south "have never been relations of equality," and that's the reason the country endured a long civil war.
It is planned that if all goes well, South Sudan would become Africa and the world's newest nation on 9 July 2011.

A national anthem and a flag has already been chosen, but a decision is yet to be made on what the new country would be called.

Every South Sudanese believes their independence is already paid for by the blood of millions who were killed during the years of conflict.

But  what becomes of an independent South Sudan is a future development many around Africa and the world would be watching with keen interest.