Local teacher, Paul Nuduru, waited outside his polling place in Juba all night so that he would be at the head of the line to cast his vote in the January 9, 2011 referendum on the independence of Southern Sudan. He explained to a BBC reporter:

For Paul and millions of other citizens of the semi-autonomous territory of Southern Sudan, the referendum offered the rare opportunity to create a new state, one that after years of conflict and underdevelopment would finally be responsive to the needs of the peoples who inhabit the region. The outcome proved momentous. The result was a near unanimous call for the creation of an independent country, the Republic of South Sudan.

The significance of this event to Sudan, the region, and indeed the international community, cannot be overstated. After a two-decade civil war that killed nearly two million people and displaced another four million civilians, after a deadly conflict in the western province of Darfur that resulted in the indictment of President Bashir on seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, and three counts of genocide by the International Criminal Court, the prospect of peace through separation has monumental implications. The creation of an independent, democratic South Sudanese state, allied with the United States and Western European nations, could help transform a region characterized by extreme underdevelopment, trans-border militia activity, and unceasing conflict. Furthermore, how the new South Sudanese government goes about the process of state-building will inform countless international interventions in post-conflict settings across the world.

The referendum was provided for by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended two decades of civil war between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A). The Sudanese government, an authoritarian regime headed by President Omar al-Bashir, had come to power in a 1989 military coup, and thereafter pursued an Islamist agenda.