President Robert Mugabe Friday left for South Sudan to participate in the independence celebrations of the world’s newest country.
The celebrations, to be attended by 30 African leaders, will be held today in the capital of Juba. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will also attend the ceremony.
The emergence of the new State was part of the peace deal that ended the 1983-2005 civil war between the Muslim dominated north and Christian dominated south.
The price for this independence has been high, with more than 2 million deaths, 4 million fleeing their homes and countless childhoods lost and families destroyed.
But a ceasefire negotiated in 2005 led to a referendum in January this year in which the people of south Sudan voted overwhelmingly for the separation of the continent’s biggest country.