KHARTOUM, Sudan, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- This month's vote on Sudan's north-south division was near unanimous in favor, election officials in the south said Sunday.
The Southern Sudan Referendum Commission said on its Web site 98.83 percent of the millions of people who voted favored forming an independent state, CNN reported.
Justice Chan Reec Madut, deputy chairman of the commission, said the findings would be formalized by Feb. 7, although the date could be extended.
"If there is an appeal or appeals, they have to be discussed, and the final announcement will then be on Feb.14," he said.
If the voting results are upheld, southern Sudan would become a new country in July, the report said.
Years of bloody fighting between factions from the predominantly Muslims in the north and mostly Christian south resulted in some 2 million deaths, international humanitarian groups claim.
Part of the conflict in Africa's largest country is that Sudan's substantial oil fields are in the south, the report said.
