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SALT LAKE CITY -- Southern Sudan will become the world's newest country in July. The people voted last month on a referendum to split the country, and Monday the overwhelming results were confirmed.
"It's a huge day. And before it could happen, we struggled a lot," Jongkor Kuot Mayol told KSL News. He is a Sudanese native who arrived in Salt Lake seven years ago.
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In a little more than five months, Southern Sudan is slated to become the world's newest country.Like Mayol, about 2,400 Sudanese refugees now call Salt Lake City home. Most have lived in their home country as recently as five to seven years. Monday was a monumental day they dreamed of.
As a child, Mayol watched the violent destruction of his village in south Sudan.
"We have to run and hide from the bombing, and my mother was killed," said Mayol, who was orphaned at 8.
Decades of civil war between the north and south ravaged the country. More than 2 million people died in the war between 1983 and 2005.
"They consider us, the southern Sudanese, as second citizens in our own land, which is not acceptable," Mayol said.
Mayol eventually fled to Egypt, achieved refugee status, and traveled to Salt Lake. He believes every family in Southern Sudan has lost loved ones in the ongoing struggle.
"The cost of freedom has a high value," he said.
There is a lot of people [who] died in southern Sudan for this cost of freedom.
–Jongkor Kuot Mayol
#mayol_q
A 2005 peace agreement guaranteed the referendum. Mayol would not miss his chance to vote in Arizona, one of eight U.S. polling places. He and his wife, Abak Garang, traveled there to register in November and again to vote, Jan. 9.
"There is a lot of people [who] died in southern Sudan for this cost of freedom," he said.
More than 98 percent of ballots were cast for independence. The two sides must still negotiate citizenship rights, oil rights and borders; but Mayol believes the peace will last.
He and his wife are expecting their first child together next month, so this threshold for his native land means even more.
"The vote that I voted, it's not just for myself. It's for my mother, for my kids, for generations to come," he said.
After Mayol finishes a college degree in International Studies, he plans to return to Southern Sudan to help build his country. He recently finished writing a book on his story, and is looking for a publisher.
Meanwhile, the United States is now willing consider removing Sudan from its list of states that sponsor terrorism. Sudan's president, Omar Bashir, has been indicted for war crimes in connection with the deaths in Sudan's western region, Darfur.
The United States intends to formally recognize Southern Sudan as a sovereign, independent state in July.
E-mail: jboal@ksl.com
