A Bari Community member holds the flag of Southern Sudan during celebrations on the eve of their declaration of independence in Juba,Southern Sudan.
South Sudan on Thursday became the newest member of United Nations, as it joined the world’s top club amid pledges to help one of the planet’s poorest states take its first steps.
“I declare South Sudan a member of the United Nations,” said Joseph Deiss, president of the UN General Assembly, after a vote by acclamation admitted the country as the UN’s 193rd member.
“Welcome, South Sudan. Welcome to the community of nations,” added UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
South Sudan declared independence on Saturday at a ceremony in the new capital Juba before tens of thousands of its citizens and numerous foreign leaders following nearly 50 years of war with Sudan and millions of deaths.
The nation’s independence came exactly six months after southerners voted almost unanimously to split with their former civil war enemies in the north.
For decades, until a peace agreement was signed in 2005, southern rebels fought successive wars with the north, leaving the region in ruins, millions of people dead and a legacy of mutual mistrust.
Mr Ban acknowledged the country’s painful past as he welcomed South Sudan into the club of nations.
“All those who endured the long civil war. All those who lost so many loved ones. All those who left their homes and fled their communities. All those who held fast to hope. Now they have reached an important milestone,” he said. “Yes, the task ahead is great. But so, too, is the country’s potential.
“We pledge to help South Sudan shape its future — the well-being and future prosperity of each depends on the other,” Ban added.
“South and North share a common destiny, they must see a future as true partners, not rivals.”
The international community, and in particular the United States, China, Russia and the European Union, were among the first to recognize the world’s newest country, which despite its vast oil reserves is among the poorest in the world.
Millions of southerners fled to northern Sudan during the devastating north-south civil war between 1983 and 2005. Many have returned south this year to participate in the building of their new nation.
The US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Wednesday that Washington “salutes the courage of the people of South Sudan who never abandon hope.”
French diplomat David Douillet told the Security Council that the independence “is a major event in African history” and “marks a happy end to 50 years of war.”
The Security Council has approved a resolution calling for the 7,000 soldiers and 900 civilians from the Sudan mission to leave by the end of August and be transferred to the new UN mission to South Sudan and to a UN force located in the disputed town of Abyei.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday held talks with the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, on the telephone and offered Israeli help, the premier’s office said.
“The people of Israel want the success of your country. We know how difficult it is to start with nothing,” he told Mr Kiir, four days after the declaration of South Sudan’s independence.
In another development, Sudan’s parliament passed a law on Thursday cancelling the Sudanese nationality of southerners, four days after their homeland declared independence from the north, state media reported.
“All the southerners are going to lose their Sudanese nationality directly” because of the amendments to a law approved by parliament, MP Ismail al-Haj Musa told AFP, confirming a report on the official SUNA news agency.
Despite a mass migration back to the south since October — some 360,000 are already thought to have returned — more than one million southerners remain in the north, according to UNHCR. Many of those remaining were born in the north. Under the amendments, which await a final reading next Monday, “Sudanese nationality is automatically cancelled for any person acquiring the nationality of the state of South Sudan,” Suna said.
Story Credit:Daily Nation
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