On Jan. 9, 2011, South Sudanese turned out en masse to vote in a referendum on their independence, with more than 99 percent of those in the South voting in favor of secession from northern Sudan. Despite concerns about violence around the vote, it went off mostly peacefully, and the vote was soon followed by waves of South Sudanese returning to their home ahead of independence.
Despite the mostly peaceful vote, many contentious issues between the North and South remain unresolved, such as the status of the border region of Abyei, which was supposed to hold a referendum of its own to determine whether it would opt to join a newly independent South Sudan or stay with northern Sudan. Abyei and another border region known as South Kordofan have been plagued by fighting between northern armed forces and the fledgling state’s army, as well as attacks by southern rebels.
