South Sudan formally declared independence from its former oppressor North Sudan over the weekend after decades of bloody conflicts, but the problems plaguing the two countries are far from being resolved.

In a referendum on Southern independence held in January — widely criticized by communists, islamists and the ruling Sudanese dictatorship in Khartoum — almost 99 percent of voters in the South voted in favor of secession from the North. The election was the product of a 2005 agreement stemming from the most recent 20-year civil war.

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Photo of South Sudan flag: AP Images