193 rd Country in the World - South Sudan

 

National Flag of South Sudan

                                                
Newly independent South Sudan became the 193rd member of the United Nations on Thursday, welcomed into the international community amid an uneasy peace with the Sudanese government in the north.
General Assembly President Joseph Deiss banged a gavel signaling South Sudan's admission to the world body by acclamation as diplomats burst into applause.
"Today, we are firmly entrenching South Sudan in the community of nations," Deiss said.

Independence for the country's eight million people on Saturday was the climax of a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war with the Arab-dominated north and called for a referendum in which South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for secession.
But many differences remain between the north and the mainly ethnic African south over borders and wealth-sharing among other things.
Military standoffs in the contested border region of Abyei and new fighting in South Kordofan – a state in Sudan with many south-supporting residents – already threaten to spark a new north-south conflict.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and South Sudan's President Salva Kiir for ensuring that the referendum and its results were honored.
"It is imperative that you resolve outstanding differences with the same pragmatism and leadership that you have each shown so far," Ban said. "The well-being and future prosperity of each depends on the other. South and North share a common destiny – they must see a future as true partners, not rivals."
Although South Sudan is now expected to control more than 75 percent of what was Sudan's daily oil production, it has no refineries and southern oil must flow through the north's pipelines to reach market. The young nation is also one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, with only a couple of dozen miles (kilometers) of paved roads, very low literacy, and a lack of medical facilities.

Its flag hoisted at UN Headquarters, South Sudan becomes world body's 193rd member