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| South Sudan celebrates its new-found independence on 9 July 2011 Picture courtesy of: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/04/opinion/south-sudan-lost-boy/ |
After years of planning, preparation, and anticipation, South Sudan became an independent country on July 9th, 2011. 99% of voters wanted to secede from the north. It took a lot of time and fighting to finally get everything figured out. Both countries had to figure out the country’s sharing of oil wealth, where the border was going to be, and the country’s collective debt.
There were more problems regarding the Abyei region. With the indefinite postponement of the Abyei referendum, its final status was still pending. That was a big source of tension in the region. There were small amounts of violence in Abyei, but that all changed in May 2011. Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, ordered an attack on Aybei.
He maintained that the attack was justified response to southern provocation. He planned an attack from southern fighters on Northern forces and peacekeeping soldiers from the United Nations a few days earlier. Now Bashir claimed Abyei to be Northern Land and refused to withdraw northern troops. Many were scared this could reignite a war.
However, most of these fears were quelled when both sides agreed to demilitarize their undecided border. In June, an agreement was reached for a new, temporary North-South administration of the Abyei region. It was also agreed that both North and south forces were removed from the region. Then Ethiopian peacekeeping troops were sent for security in Abyei.
As secession day got closer and closer, the north and south agreed that the critical problems, the common borderline and the sharing of the oil revenues, would be continued to be discussed after the South’s Secession. On July 8th, the UN agreed for a new peacekeeping force: the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS). On July 9th, 2011, the South had a peaceful secession to create the South Sudan we know today.
Submitted by Abe Wintermantel
Source: https://www.britannica.com/
