Sudanese go to the polls in referendum

Millions of South Sudanese started voting today in a long-awaited independence referendum that is expected to see their war-ravaged region emerge as a new nation. Huge queues built up outside polling stations before dawn in the southern capital Juba to cast their ballot.

The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest civil war.

Bishop Edward Hiboro Kusala of Tambura Yambio in Sudan says this referendum is an opportunity for permanent peace.

“The referendum is an opportunity for the people of Sudan”. He adds that, “we are coming to a possibility which we never had.”

Meanwhile,

John Ashworth from the Sudan Ecumenical Forum is in the country for the vote.

He says there are tensions in some areas over the right of self determination.Listen