- JUBA, Sudan: Thousands of Southern Sudanese marched through the streets of their capital to demonstrate support for next month's independence referendum.
Marchers in the southern capital of Juba sang songs Thursday proclaiming the virtues of an independent Southern Sudan. They also blared music from speakers mounted on trucks.
The Southern Sudanese have made their overwhelming preference for secession clear in the run-up to the vote.
The US government declared in September that it was “inevitable” that the south will vote for independence in the Jan. 9 poll.
The mainly Muslim north fought a 23-year-long war with the mainly Christian south. The referendum is part of a peace deal signed in 2005.