Hours before south Sudan becomes independent, a mood of joyful expectation swept through its capital on Friday, with crowds dancing in the streets amid last-minute preparations for the historic ceremony.
World leaders arriving on the eve of independence day included United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.
“The people of south Sudan have achieved their dream. The UN and the international community will continue to stand by south Sudan. I am very happy to be here,” Ban told reporters in Juba.
He spoke after north Sudan officially recognised southern independence, in a statement read out in Khartoum by the minister of presidential affairs and broadcast on state television.
The UN Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution creating a UN mission in the country that will include 7Â 000 peacekeepers and 900 civilians tasked with helping the fledgling nation.
The new UN Mission in South Sudan (Unmiss) will take on a “vital role … to support national authorities, in close consultation with international partners, to consolidate the peace and prevent a return to violence,” the resolution said.
Ban named Hilde Johnson, a Norwegian politician involved in talks to end Sudan’s civil war, to head the mission.
In Khartoum earlier, Ban also urged north and south to reach a political accord on Abyei, the most intractable of the issues the two sides failed to resolve pre-partition.
“I know secession is painful, emotionally and financially … While the people of north and south Sudan will soon live in different countries, their future will be closely linked,” Ban said.
“Ties of culture, politics and commerce compel both to face their common future as partners, not as rivals. A viable South Sudan requires a viable north Sudan.”
The UN Security Council last month ordered a 4Â 200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force into Abyei in a bid to douse tensions there ahead of southern independence.
Party planners
Workers toiled on Friday to ready the main venue for Saturday’s independence ceremony at the mausoleum of John Garang.
The southern rebel leader was killed only months after a 2005 peace deal ended decades of conflict with Khartoum and opened the door to eventual nationhood.
In a reminder of the devastating conflict — and the belated state of the preparations — a British-based mine clearance group said on Friday that it was called in by the Juba government last week to clear unexploded ordnance from a large area opposite Garang’s mausoleum.
The area was littered with leftover munitions, and the work was completed on Tuesday.
Information minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin insisted that preparations were on track for Saturday, when millions of southern Sudanese and foreign dignitaries including 30 African leaders will mark the birth of the world’s newest nation.
Church bells are due to ring out at midnight (9pm GMT, 11pm SA time) on Friday.
The main ceremony will include military parades, prayers, raising the newly proclaimed Republic of South Sudan’s flag and the country’s first president, Salva Kiir, signing the transitional constitution.
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir repeated his claim to want a secure and stable south on Thursday, while adding that good future relations between the two countries depended on secure borders and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Southern officials have said that Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, will be the main guest of honour.
South Sudan’s celebrations come after more than 50 years of conflict between the southern rebels and successive Khartoum governments that left the region in ruins, millions of people dead and a legacy of mutual mistrust.
The 2005 comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) that finally ended the conflict, and which was signed under intense pressure from foreign countries, particularly the United States, Britain and Norway, paved the way for a referendum on southern independence in January.
Around 99% of southerners voted to split from the north.
Among the US delegation flying to Juba are Washington’s ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, Colin Powell, former secretary of state and a key figure in the CPA negotiations, and US envoy to Sudan Princeton Lyman. — Sapa-AFP