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South Sudan chooses to secede: official

From:AFP       January 30, 2011 7:34PM

CLOSE to 99 per cent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north in a landmark January 9-15 referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results announced today.

Earlier partial results had put the outcome of the vote beyond doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba.

Chan Reec, the chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau in charge of polling in the south, said a whopping 99.57 per cent of those who voted in the south chose secession.

Turnout in the south stood at 99 per cent and only 16,129 people voted for Africa’s largest country to remain united, said Reec, whose announcement was met by cheers from the crowd…..........

............. “The results just announced are decisive,’’ he said. ``These results lead to a change of situation, that is the emergence of two states instead of one state.’‘

Episcopalian Archbishop Daniel Deng opened the ceremony with a prayer.

“The prayer I say the people of southern Sudan have been waiting for for 55 years, the prayer of a country. Bless the name of this land, southern Sudan,’’ he said…...

According to the commission website, 3,851,994 votes were cast.

link

Good news. Let’s see if it can now happen without more bloodshed.

Yeah reports vary but all said over 95% of South Sudanese voted for separation.

So far there has not been too much bloodshed but given the history of the place I am still praying for the situation there.

A call to prayer and fasting for Nuba
   

http://eternity.biz/news/a_call_to_prayer_and_fasting_for_nuba/ 

9:14pm Thursday, 23rd June 2011   ShareThis

Urgent calls for prayer from Sudanese leaders have led Afriocan Enterprise to call for prayer and fasting this Sunday June 26, for the Sudanese people, as genocide threatens the Nuba region and Christians are killed and churches attacked in araes newar the border between Sudan and the South Sudan which recently voted for independence.
   
Andudu Adam Elnail Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kadugli, Sudan has issued a plea for prayer “on behalf of my people of the Nuba mountains”, while a report by Compass Direct News, a christian agency, reports Christians have been killed, others tortured and Churches attacked in South Kordofan state.
Bishop Elnail writes: To all my brothers and sisters in Christ,
On behalf of my people in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan we are asking all Sudanese Christians wherever they are, and the Church throughout the world to join with us in a day of prayer and fasting on June 26,2011.
Once again we are facing the nightmare of genocide of our people in a final attempt to erase our culture and society from the face of the earth. It is not a war between armies that is being fought in our land, but the utter destruction of our way of life and our history, as demonstrated by the genocide of our neighbors and relatives in Darfur. This is a war of domination and eradication, at it’s core it is a war of terror by the government of Sudan against their people.
As we approach the July 9 day of independence for the new South Sudan, President Bashir has declared for all the world to hear that Sharia will be the law of the land for the North, refusing to recognize the legitimate presence of the Christian minority. It is a declaration of their determination to also end the remembrance of our Christian heritage that dates back two thousand years to the story of the Ethiopian eunuch (who was from modern day Sudan).
At this moment, there is a meeting in Ethiopia with the different parties of Sudan, the African Union and other international parties seeking to find a true path of peace that recognizes our right to survive and thrive as a people, both Muslim and Christian alike, with equality and justice for all. Please pray and fast with us as you are able for a solution to this crisis.
Please forward to everyone.
Rt. Revd Andudu Adam Elnail
Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kadugli, Sudan
 
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Anyone ever done any fasting?