Sudan's Leader: We Will Respect Southern Secession

The president of Sudan said Monday that he would accept the south's vote for separation, hours before final results were expected to be released on a referendum for independence.

The official outcome should confirm overwhelming support for the world's newest nation, and mark the formal separation of oil-rich Southern Sudan from the north of the country in July.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had resisted the vote until the 11th hour, warning that splitting Africa's largest nation could reignite decades of deadly civil war that destabilized the entire region. Bashir now says the north will accept the south's decision to secede.

"We will commit to the final result and respect the choice of the people of the south," he told supporters.

Bashir's comment may help allay fears of northern reluctance to allow Southern Sudan to go peacefully.

Southern Sudan announced Jan. 30 that 99 percent of voters in the south voted for independence during the referendum, which was part of a 2005 north-south peace deal brokered by the United States.

Before separation in July, Southern Sudan must grapple with tough issues such as underdevelopment, ethnic tension and a potentially explosive unresolved question over the disputed oil-rich Abyei region. The south's economy also must be disentangled from the north's. That will mean agreeing to share petroleum revenues and precious Nile River waters. International donors have warned both north and south Sudan that development funds will be limited after the split.

Secession also has sparked violence within the north's military, the Sudanese Armed Forces. It keeps units in Southern Sudan that will be expected to move back north if the preliminary referendum results are confirmed.

At least 30 soldiers were killed in a dispute over who gets to keep the artillery they are holding in Southern Sudan, officials said Sunday.

The fighting took place Saturday in two towns in Upper Nile state between soldiers of the Sudanese Armed Forces, said Akuoc Teng Diing, the county commissioner of Melut, where some of the conflict took place. Diing said soldiers also fought each other in Paloich, nearly 93 miles northeast of Upper Nile state's capital, Malakal. Paloich is the site of the most productive oil fields in Sudan. Some 300,000 barrels of oil are pumped daily from the fields.

Diing said 11 soldiers were killed in Paloich and 19 in Melut. He said most of the soldiers in the Sudanese Armed Forces unit are southerners who had fought on the side of the north during the 21-year war between the north and south.

On Thursday and Friday, a separate unit of Sudanese Armed Forces soldiers fought each other, with initial reports saying nine died. Under the 2005 peace deal, both regions are allowed to keep separate armies. That deal also allows the north to keep some units in the south.

Col. Philip Aguer, spokesman for Southern Sudan's military, the Sudan People's Liberation Army, said Saturday that the death toll from the fighting in Malakal rose to more than 20.

NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton in Abidjan and Frank Langfitt in Nairobi contributed to this report, which also contains material from The Associated Press.