News from Sudan

[Trigger warning for violence, genocide, systemic rape.]

Sudan, the two halves of which have been warring for two decades, appears likely to split into two separate nations:

The final results of a Southern Sudan referendum will be announced Monday, organizers said, bringing the largest nation in Africa closer to breaking into two.

An overwhelming majority of Southern Sudanese -- nearly 99% -- voted to split from the north, preliminary results show.

The Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, which organized the vote last month, met Monday with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and First Vice President Salva Kiir to present the final results, state TV reported.

...If the preliminary results are validated and no other obstacles emerge, Southern Sudan would become a new nation in July.

Twenty-two million people have died in Sudan's civil war, and the Janjaweed has long been using rape as a systematic weapon of ethnic cleansing: Millions of women have been victimized by sexual violence during the course of this conflict.

And peace is still very far away: Just today, a mutiny led by members of the Sudanese Armed Forces' Joint Integrated Units along the north/south border has resulted in as many as 50 deaths.

This Sudan Q&A by Reuters also notes, quite rightly, that the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which currently rules the South, "says it fought for decades against the north for human rights and democracy, but since taking power in the south it has not consistently promoted those values."

A nation, or two nations, do not recover easily from a generation of war.