Sudan’s Vice President said he accepts the oil-producing south’s split after the first official results showed a 99 percent vote for independence in a referendum hoping to end a bitter cycle of civil war.
The Jan. 9 vote culminated a 2005 north-south peace deal and the south will likely celebrate independence on July 9. Its aim is to put a definitive end to the conflict which claimed 2 million lives and destabilised much of east Africa.
“We announce our agreement and our acceptance of the result of the referendum announced yesterday” Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha told reporters in the north’s first reaction since the results.
“We wish our brothers in the south good luck and a fruitful future in organising the issues surrounding the new country”
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