ALERT NET: JUBA, Sudan – South Sudanese have voted overwhelmingly to declare independence from the north in a referendum held last week, according to early figures and a Reuters survey of officials in nine of the region's 10 states.
Referendum officials reported on Wednesday that votes to secede approached 99 percent in some southern states and disapora communities in Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya.
Southern leaders have urged people from the oil-producing territory to wait until official figures due in early February before celebrating, for fear of antagonising the north.
The figures are in line with expectations for the plebiscite, the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war.
Referendum officials told Reuters of large votes in favour of independence in the southern states of Central Equatoria, Unity, Lakes, Jonglei, Warrap, Western Bahr al-Ghazal, Northern Bahr al-Ghazal, Eastern Equatoria and Upper Nile. >>> Reuters | Wednesday, January 19, 2011
