“Election officials say the final results from last month’s vote in Southern Sudan show that more than 98 percent of the ballots were cast for independence,” the Associated Press reports from Juba, Sudan.

It adds that: “The results mean that Southern Sudan will become the world’s newest country in July. Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir said Monday he accepts the outcome of the vote.”

As NPR’s Frank Langfitt has previously reported, “now comes the hard part: building a new state after decades of war.” Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.