10 July,2011 07:22 AM IST | | Agencies
Tens of thousands of South Sudanese watched the raising of their country's flag at an independence ceremony in the capital Juba on Saturday.
South Sudan is the 193rd country recognised by the UN and the 54th UN member state in Africa. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and UN chief Ban Ki-moon were among the dignitaries who came for the event.
South Sudan became the world's newest nation at midnight, the climax of a process made possible by the 2005 peace deal that ended a long civil war.
The South's independence follows decades of conflict with the north in which some 1.5 million people died.
