Juba, South Sudan (CNN) — South Sudanese wept openly as they celebrated their independence today, cheering, whistling and dancing down the streets in a ceremony fitting for the birth of a new nation.
“We are free at last,” some chanted, flags draped around their shoulders.
A man on his knees kissed the ground.
The red, white and green flag of the newborn nation, readied at half-mast the day before, was hoisted over the capital of Juba.
Among the world leaders bearing witness on this historic day: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and South African President Jacob Zuma.
“This is liberation, a new chapter,” said Abuk Makuac, who escaped to the United States in 1984 and came back home to attend the independence day activities.
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“No more war. We were born in the war, grew up in the war and married in war.”
South Sudan’s sovereignty officially breaks Africa’s largest nation into two, the result of a January referendum overwhelmingly approved by voters.
The referendum was part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war pitting a government dominated by Arab Muslims in the north against black Christians and animists in the south. The war killed about 2 million people.
Amid the independence celebrations, some residents paid tribute to relatives killed in the war.
