A referendum on independence in southern Sudan began on Monday.
The vote, which is likely to lead to the world’s newest nation, is the culmination of a 2005 peace deal that ended a north-south civil war that lasted two decades and killed 2 million people.
Almost 4 million voters were registered over the last several months, including 116,000 southerners who live in north Sudan and 60,000 in eight other countries, including the U.S.
Southerners are expected to vote overwhelmingly for secession. The referendum needs 50 percent plus one vote to pass, along with a 60 percent turnout of registered voters.
The north is mostly Arabic- speaking and Muslim, while the south is populated by black Africans who are mostly Christian and animist. They began fighting in the 1960s, after Sudan gained independence from joint British-Egyptian control in 1956. (Associated Press)
