South Sudan: The World Celebrates Newest Nation
WORLD leaders gathered in South Sudan to celebrate the world’s newest nation yesterday, hours after jubilant crowds draped in flags danced down the streets in a boisterous midnight party.
Tens of thousands cheered, whistled and waved miniature flags as the new nation hoisted its new flag. Others wept.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, United States President Barack Obama and South African President Jacob Zuma joined other leaders at the independence day events.
Al-Bashir, according to reports, said this week he is making the trip to convey “brotherly relations” between his government based in the north and South Sudan.
Hours before rows of planes carrying leaders lined up at the airport, honking cars rolled through the streets.
Passengers danced on top of cars and banged on cans to mark independence day.
“This is liberation, a new chapter,” said Abuk Makuac, who escaped to the United States in 1984 and came back home to attend the independence day activities.
“No more war. We were born in the war, grew up in the war and married in war.”
South Sudan’s sovereignty officially breaks Africa’s largest nation into two, the result of a January referendum overwhelmingly approved by South Sudan voters.
The referendum was part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war pitting a government dominated by Arab Muslims in the north against black Christians and animists in the south. The war killed about 2 million people.
Amid the independence celebrations, some residents paid tribute to relatives killed in the war.
A sea of people filled Freedom Square in Juba, next to the mausoleum of the late John Garang, the rebel leader who led the South Sudanese during the civil war. They waved flags and screamed in happiness as South Sudan officially became the world’s newest nation.
The wild crowds surged forward, dancing for hours in the baking sun. Several people fainted in the heat but the mood was ecstatic. When the giant flag of South Sudan rose on the 30m flagpole, men cried, women ululated and thousands waved flags in a blur of colour.
A host of world leaders spoke on the podium, but the real party was at the back of the site where thousands danced to traditional drum beats.
Overnight there had also been dancing and drumming in streets during the final countdown to independence. Those who could not fit inside the cars that zoomed around town hung out the windows, or sat on the roof. One car had the sign plastered on the back window: “Just divorced.”
Tens of thousands cheered, whistled and waved miniature flags as the new nation hoisted its new flag. Others wept.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, United States President Barack Obama and South African President Jacob Zuma joined other leaders at the independence day events.
Al-Bashir, according to reports, said this week he is making the trip to convey “brotherly relations” between his government based in the north and South Sudan.
Hours before rows of planes carrying leaders lined up at the airport, honking cars rolled through the streets.
Passengers danced on top of cars and banged on cans to mark independence day.
“This is liberation, a new chapter,” said Abuk Makuac, who escaped to the United States in 1984 and came back home to attend the independence day activities.
“No more war. We were born in the war, grew up in the war and married in war.”
South Sudan’s sovereignty officially breaks Africa’s largest nation into two, the result of a January referendum overwhelmingly approved by South Sudan voters.
The referendum was part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war pitting a government dominated by Arab Muslims in the north against black Christians and animists in the south. The war killed about 2 million people.
Amid the independence celebrations, some residents paid tribute to relatives killed in the war.
A sea of people filled Freedom Square in Juba, next to the mausoleum of the late John Garang, the rebel leader who led the South Sudanese during the civil war. They waved flags and screamed in happiness as South Sudan officially became the world’s newest nation.
The wild crowds surged forward, dancing for hours in the baking sun. Several people fainted in the heat but the mood was ecstatic. When the giant flag of South Sudan rose on the 30m flagpole, men cried, women ululated and thousands waved flags in a blur of colour.
A host of world leaders spoke on the podium, but the real party was at the back of the site where thousands danced to traditional drum beats.
Overnight there had also been dancing and drumming in streets during the final countdown to independence. Those who could not fit inside the cars that zoomed around town hung out the windows, or sat on the roof. One car had the sign plastered on the back window: “Just divorced.”
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