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South Sudan
This was their day, and they celebrated.
The result of the referendum is already known. All anybody is talking about is secession. The act of voting is an act of independence. It was met with music, dance and smiles. And a lot of exhausted journalists.
Some never believed that this day would come. But today it had arrived, and the citizens of southern Sudan met it en-masse, clutching their laminated voter registration cards. People had queued for hours, lines having formed since before sunrise on this historic day, the 9th January 2011, the day prescribed in the peace agreement of 2005 decreeing southern Sudan’s right to self-determination.
The voting process was laborious, taking up to seven minutes per voter. Protocol was followed; nobody wanted to risk arriving at this moment and giving anyone any cause to question its undertaking.
Voters showed their registration card, checked their name from a list and impressing a finger-print on the form, then receiving their ballot paper. Walking to the cardboard voting booths, a yellow curtain guarded their privacy (although nobody spoke of anything but secession), and then the slip was meticulously folded and cast in the plastic urns. Finally, their finger dipped in purple ink, they left.
In one voting station in Juba, elderly women ululated as they walked away from their cast ballot, the queues never failing to applaud these people whose lives had existed through decades of civil war.
Many said they had waited their whole lives for this moment, the “final walk to freedom”. South Sudan has been embroiled by two civil wars since independence in 1956, with just over a decade of respite. It ended in 2005 with a peace agreement, which defined January 9th 2011 as the day of self-determination. Even until several weeks ago, many doubted that this day would actually arrive.
At the John Garang mausoleum in Juba, the future-capital’s main polling station, queues had already formed at sunrise, full of people ready to cast their ballot for secession. This was the day they had been waiting for.
With Southern Sudan on the brink of becoming the world’s newest nation—indicators pointing to southerners choosing independence from the North in the forthcoming referendum—many people have returned to the South with high hopes of a new life. The UN has recorded around 120,000 returnees since late October, many of whom are arriving at Juba’s port before being transferred to their homelands. For many, though, it is Juba where they will settle, reunited with their families in the Southern capital.
The World Food Programme is providing assistance to around 100,000 of the returnees, who have come with little or no financial means to carve out a new life as this new nation takes form. Returnees are given three months of food assistance, with help to households in the shape of lentils, sorghum, salt and cooking oil. Focus is on feeding people who arrive at their final destination, settling with their families, encouraging them to begin growing their own food in the South’s fertile soils. For those stuck in transit, emergency food relief has also been provided.
Here in Juba, 3199 people in the district of Buluk today received their second monthly ration, the majority having arrived on the 17th and 18th December 2010 after years in the North. With further distribution to 811 people tomorrow, this will be the final food distribution in Juba before the start of voting on Sunday, 9th January, where Southerners will decide between unity with Northern Sudan, or secession.
» More images from the food distribution, starting here.
“Bye bye Bashir” people chanted as Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, sped past them in a massive motorcade. Upon the roundabout around which they had congregated, a clock stands, counting-down to the Southern Sudan referendum. Today, it was showing four days.
Despite their chant and the flags they waved which ubiquitously called for secession, with the open palm symbol meaning “separation”, the Southern Sudanese citizens claimed no animosity towards al-Bashir. “We are very happy to see the president here. Southerners have no problem with northerners” said Joseph Mairi from Eastern Equatoria. Banners by the side of the road from the airport greeted al-Bashir, but reminded him that his time as president would soon be over. “We welcome you back to celebrate the independence of south Sudan” read one, erected by a non-governmental civil group.
His visit was one of conciliation, meeting Southern president Salva Kiir, stating that the North would accept the result of the referendum, whether for unity or secession, and that they would help the South post-referendum. “I am going to celebrate your decision, even if your decision is secession” he said.
During recent weeks, the north has made several attempts to convince Southerners to vote for unity, but the feeling here on the street is that it is too little, too late. “What did they offer for the last fifty-five years?” asks Akol Hem Arop, a doctor working in Juba. “We have four days to decide for the future of our people. These four days will not be like the hell of the 50 years of unity. We have to decide at the ballot box. My child will have a better future. He will not be a second class citizen.”
