• Thursday, July 14, 2011
• Inter Press Service

The UN Security Council Wednesday approved resolution 1999 ensuring the admission of South Sudan as a new member State of the United Nations.

The 192 member General Assembly is expected to ratify this decision Thursday, When approved, South Sudan will become the 193rd member of the United Nations. Montenegro was the 192nd member gaining admission in 2006, with Switzerland and Timor-Leste in 2002.

Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon stressed the importance of helping the newborn country during its transition period. He said: 'Our responsibilities are enormous and the role of the UN is vital, but it is complicated.'

'We must continue to help — to help the new nation become a nation — to help the region consolidate the gains. This is the ultimate test of peace building and of nation-building,' Ban declared.

South Sudan’s independence is the result of the January 2011 referendum held under the terms of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the decades-long civil war between the North and the South.

Meanwhile, UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky confirmed that a Sudanese staff member of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), Hawa Abdalla Mohamed, was released from detention in Khartoum, Sudan, on Tuesday, while another staff member, Idriss Abdelrahman, is still in detention since April.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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