Khartoum - Sudan's southerners cast ballots on Sunday to decide the fate of unity or division of Africa's largest country, where two decades of north-south war have claimed two million lives.
It is believed the majority of registered voters will vote for seceding Sudan's Christian-Animist south from the mostly Muslim north in the week-long referendum, a major item in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) inked between the two sides.
Voters lined up for hundreds of meters to wait for the beginning, which many say is a historic moment for Sudan. Women danced and sang slogans of "Freedom is burning" ahead of the referendum.
The vote is expected to end on 15 January.
Salva Kiir Mayardit, first vice president of Sudan and president of the government of South Sudan, cast the first ballot in Juba at a polling station at the museum of John Garang, founder of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the south's ruling party.
The security of voting centers must be guaranteed, he said after the voting. "Security forces in the south and north Sudan must make sure the security of the voting."
He noted that the property of the northern Sudanese and foreigners in south Sudan must be protected, which won applauses among the cheering crowd.
