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South Sudan votes for independence: vote report


    KHARTOUM (Reuters) - South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to declare its independence in final results of a referendum made public on Monday, opening the door to Africa's newest state and a fresh period of uncertainty for the fractured region.

    A total of 98.83 percent of voters from Sudan's oil-producing south chose to secede from the north in last month's referendum, according to a video display of the vote seen by Reuters at the venue of the announcement.

    The referendum is the climax of a 2005 north-south peace accord that set out to end Africa's longest civil war and instil democracy in a country that straddles the continent's Arab-sub Saharan divide.

    (Reporting by Opheera McDoom, writing by Andrew Heavens, editing by Michael Roddy)