All you need to know about South Sudan's independence
The celebrations will begin after midnight local time (2100 GMT) around the countdown clock in the centre of Juba.
The BBC's Will Ross in the town says in the lead-up to the historic event, radio stations have been blaring out South Sudan's new anthem.
"The Republic of Sudan announces that it recognises the Republic of South Sudan as an independent state, according to the borders existing on 1 January 1 1956," Minister of Presidential Affairs Bakri Hassan Saleh said in a statement broadcast on state television.
Earlier this week, President Bashir pledged his support to South Sudan and said he wanted the new country to be "secure and stable".
"We will bless our brothers in the south over their country and we wish them success," said Mr Bashir, who agreed the 2005 peace deal with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
But he warned that "brotherly relations" depended on secure borders and non-interference in each others' affairs.
There had been fears that war could resume after recent fighting in two border areas, Abyei and South Kordofan, which has forced some 170,000 people from their homes.
But separate deals in recent weeks, and the withdrawal of rival forces from the border, have calmed tensions.
The UN Security Council has passed a resolution approving a new 7,000-strong peacekeeping force for South Sudan - but this is basically a rebranding of the force which was already in Sudan, mostly in the south.
The government in Khartoum has said their mandate would not be renewed, leading the US to argue that the 1,000 UN troops should be allowed to remain in South Kordofan.
The 1,000 troops in the disputed town of Abyei are to be replaced by 4,200 Ethiopian soldiers.
Challenges ahead
Rebecca Garang, the wife of the late John Garang who led the southern rebels in the civil war, told the BBC her people had no quarrel with the people of the north, only with their government.
"There are many colleagues and comrades who perished during the war but we are here for their blood," she said.
"So we are very happy and grateful for their contribution for this nation."
President Omar al-Bashir warned 'brotherly relations' depend on non-interference in each others' affairs
Our correspondent says keeping both the predominately Muslim north and the south stable long after the celebratory parties have ended will be a mighty challenge.
The two sides must still decide on issues such as drawing up the new border and how to divide Sudan's debts and oil wealth.
Analysts say the priority for Khartoum will be to negotiate a favourable deal on oil revenue, as most oilfields lie in the south.
At present, the revenues are being shared equally.
Khartoum has some leverage, as most of the oil pipelines flow north to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
Citizenship is also a key issue which has not yet been decided.
According to the state-run Sudan Radio, the citizenship of South Sudanese living in the north has now been revoked.
Earlier this week, thousands of southern Sudanese civil servants working in the north had to leave their jobs ahead of the split.
The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. South Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.
Sudan's arid north is mainly home to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in South Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own languages and traditional beliefs, alongside Christianity and Islam.
The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In South Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.
The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.
Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and South Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.
Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue. The pipelines run north but the two sides have still not agreed how to share the oil wealth in the future.
An intensive bombing campaign in Sudan is causing "huge suffering" for civilians, the UN says.
A UN spokesman said two planes had dropped 11 bombs near the South Kordofan town of Kauda on Tuesday.
Aid workers say pro-southern groups are being ethnically cleansed in the area, while a deal has been done to withdraw troops from the nearby Abyei region.
The fighting comes less than a month before South Sudan is to secede from Africa's biggest country.
It raises fears of renewed north-south conflict despite a 2005 peace deal which paved the way for the end of decades of war.
Some 140,000 people have fled the recent clashes.
Although South Kordofan is north of what will soon be the international border, it is home to many pro-south communities, some of whom fought with southern rebels during the long civil war.
"People are being hunted down for their ethnicity," John Ashworth, an adviser with the Sudan Ecumenical Forum, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
He said many areas inhabited by ethnic Nubans were being bombed and shelled by northern forces and that people had fled further into the area's hills and mountains to escape the attacks.
Aid workers say that some 40,000 people have been forced from their homes in South Kordofan, on top of some 100,000 in Abyei.
Amnesty International's Tawanda Hondora told the BBC's Network Africa programme that some people had been arrested outside the UN base in the South Kordofan capital, Kadugli, and were later shot dead.
"We think this is the start of what might be ethnic cleansing of South Kordofan, Unity State and Abyei, with the precise purpose of ensuring that, come independence, the areas will not have people who are perceived to be sympathetic to the south," he said.
Aid agency offices have been looted, churches have been ransacked and buildings destroyed.
But this was denied by Rabbie Abdelattif Ebaid, an adviser to Sudan's information minister.
"The armed forces are targeting the rebels. The area has now been freed from all rebels. Everything is now quiet in the main towns," he said.
On Friday, the south accused the northern military of bombing areas in Unity State to seize oil fields from the south.
The north-south war ended with a 2005 peace deal, under which the mainly Christian and animist south held a referendum in January on whether to secede from the largely Arabic-speaking, Muslim north.
Some 99% of voters opted for independence. President Bashir said he would accept the verdict of the south, where most of Sudan's oil fields lie.
The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.
Sudan's arid northern regions are home mainly to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in Southern Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own traditional beliefs and languages.
The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In Southern Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.
The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.
Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and Southern Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.
Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue, exacerbating tensions with the north. The oil-producing region of Abyei was due to hold a separate vote on whether to join the north or the south, but it has been postponed indefinitely.
The Sudanese town of Abyei has been set on fire, with gunmen looting property, the UN says.
The town and surrounding area are claimed by both Khartoum and by South Sudan, set to become independent in July. The town was captured at the weekend by northern troops.
The UN has urged Sudan's government in Khartoum to withdraw its forces.
South Sudan's secession follows decades of north-south conflict and some fear this dispute could reignite the war.
'Act of war'
In a statement, the UN Mission in Sudan (Unmis) said it "strongly condemns the burning and looting currently being perpetrated by armed elements in Abyei town".
It stressed that the northern troops were "responsible for maintaining law and order in the areas they control", urging Khartoum to "intervene to stop these criminal acts".
South Sudan earlier denounced the Abyei takeover on Saturday as an act of war.
A southern military spokesman told the BBC the north had attacked the area with 5,000 troops, killing civilians and southern soldiers.
Some 20,000 people, almost the whole population of the town, had fled, aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told the BBC.
Khartoum has said it acted after 22 of its men were killed in a southern ambush earlier this week - a claim denied by South Sudan.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU top diplomat Catherine Ashton have both condemned the violence in the region.
Tension over Abyei - claimed by a southern group, the Dinka Ngok, and northern nomads, the Misseriya - has been rising since a referendum on its future scheduled for January was postponed.
Since then there have been fears clashes in the region could spark a new war between the northern-based government of Sudan and the soon-to-be independent South Sudan.
Under a 2005 peace agreement, which ended 22 years of civil war, Abyei was granted special status and a joint north-south administration set up in 2008.
Huge numbers of Southern Sudanese are voting amid scenes of jubilation in a referendum on independence expected to split Africa's biggest country in two.
by Natalie Duval, BBC News Analyst, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla
The north of Sudan will reinforce its Islamic laws if the south secedes as a result of next month's referendum, President Omar al-Bashir has said.
Mr Bashir said the constitution would then be changed, making Islam the only religion, Sharia the only law and Arabic the only official language.
Correspondents say his comments are likely to alarm thousands of non-Muslim southerners living in the north.
They are currently protected from some of the stronger aspects of Sharia.
"If south Sudan secedes, we will change the constitution," Mr Bashir told a gathering of his supporters in the eastern town of Gederef on Sunday.
"Sharia and Islam will be the main source for the constitution, Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language," the president added.
The imposition of Sharia on the non-Muslim south was one of the reasons for the long civil war, which ended when a peace deal was signed in 2005, the BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum reports.
Under the accord, an interim constitution was drafted that removed Sharia law from the south and also recognised Sudan's cultural and social diversity, our correspondent says.
President Bashir said on Sunday there would be no question of this diversity when a new constitution was drafted, if the south became independent
Senior northern officials are just starting to acknowledge publicly that South Sudan - where most people follow traditional beliefs and Christianity - are almost certain to choose to separate in the referendum.
Separately, Mr Bashir also commented on a recent high-profile case in which a video posted on the internet showed a woman being flogged by police in the north.
"If she is lashed according to Sharia law, there is no investigation. Why are some people ashamed? This is Sharia," the president said.
Human rights activists have accused the police of treating the woman in a particularly brutal way not compatible with Islam.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon rejects a call from incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo for UN troops to leave Ivory Coast as tensions escalate after the disputed presidential poll.
Supporters of the two sides clashed in the capital, Khartoum, on Saturday.
A crowd of several thousand northerners demonstrating in favour of unity turned on around 40 southerners who arrived at the rally. The police then joined in, beating southerners who fled the scene, witnesses said.
The referendum is the result of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the 21-year civil war between North and South that left up to two million people dead.
UN diplomats fear any delay could cause renewed violence.
'More dangerous'
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's comments on unity came in a speech at a conference in the Libyan town of Sirte, as reported by Sudanese state media.
The Sudanese leader condemned a recent statement by Salva Kiir, South Sudan President, that he intended to vote for separation from the north in the referendum.
According to the peace deal, both sides are supposed to work to make unity "attractive".
One of Salva Kiir's aides told the BBC that he had simply meant that nothing had been done to make unity attractive.
President Bashir said he was still committed to the referendum, but that differences had first to be settled over issues which include the location of the border between north and south, sharing oil revenues and the waters of the River Nile.
According to Suna news agency, "he said a new conflict between the north and south will ensue if there was a failure to address these issues before the referendum and that such a conflict could be more dangerous than the one that took place before the peace agreement".
The BBC's James Copnall says the Sudanese president's words intensify the tensions between the North and the South in the run-up to the referendum which is scheduled for 9 January.
A visiting delegation of UN Security Council envoys said the timetable for January's vote was extremely tight but "doable".
But the UK's Permanent Representative to the Security Council, Mark Lyall Grant, told reporters they wanted to see a concerted push to resolve the many "key outstanding issues" before a vote could be held.
Salva Kiir earlier asked the UN delegation to deploy peacekeepers along the border with the north ahead of the referendum.
Between eight and 10 areas along the border, including the Abyei oil fields, are still in dispute and analysts say a clash at any of them could spark off a military confrontation. Both sides have sent troops there.
Diplomats said Mr Kiir's request would be considered.
A Sudanese election official prepares for closing of ballot boxes at the end of the last day of multiparty elections, at a polling station in Khartoum, 15 Apr 2010
Political tension is rising in Sudan as election workers get set to count the votes from the country's landmark elections.
Polling stations closed Thursday after five days of voting, in which millions of Sudanese cast ballots in races for president, parliament, state and local offices.
These were Sudan's first multi-party polls since 1986, and a key part of the 2005 peace deal that ended the country's north-south civil war.
The voting was mostly peaceful but was marred by logistical problems and charges from opposition groups that the government and ruling National Congress Party were planning to rig the results.
Tension rose again Thursday when an adviser to President Omar al-Bashir, Nafie Ali Nafie, said opposition groups are planning to reject the outcome and to organize riots aimed at toppling the government.
Reuters news agency reports that an opposition party dismissed Nafie's statement as "completely false."
Earlier Thursday, the NCP accused the army of semi-autonomous southern Sudan of killing eight people, including the party's top representative in the town of Raja.
However, other officials say those killings stemmed from a non-political dispute.
Several parties either partially or fully boycotted this week's vote, including southern Sudan's main party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. Both the SPLM and the opposition Umma Party withdrew from the presidential race, making it almost certain President Bashir will win re-election.
Races for many other seats remained competitive. However, election observers reported widespread problems with the voting, including missing names on voter lists, confusing ballots, polling stations opening late, and in some places, a shortage of voting materials.
Sudan's election commission said late Thursday that it was canceling elections in 17 national constituencies and 16 regional ones. State-run television said those areas would see new elections in 60 days.
President Bashir has ruled Sudan since a 1989 coup. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes against civilians in Sudan's Darfur region.
Southern Sudan is due to hold a separate referendum early next year on whether to become an independent country.
KHARTOUM, Sudan - The United Nations says clashes between security forces and election protesters have left two people dead in southern Sudan.
David Gressly, the U.N. regional co-ordinator for south Sudan, says four others were also wounded Friday in the city of Bentiu when police opened fire to disperse a crowd of protesters.
Gressly said Saturday the demonstrators were supporters of a losing candidate in Sudan's April 11-15 elections. He said the supporters took to the streets after vote results - which showed their candidate losing the election - were announced by election officials in Bentiu and not in the capital Khartoum, leading them to suspect vote fraud.
There are fears that a flawed vote could fuel violence in the conflict-strewn country.
Election monitors have said the elections failed to meet international standards.
KHARTOUM, Sudan – International monitors said Saturday that Sudan's first multiparty elections in more than two decades failed to meet international standards, an assessment that diminishes hopes the voting would set the nation on the road to peace and democracy.
The conclusions also boosted fears that a flawed vote could fuel violence in the conflict-strewn country, where some opposition parties challenging the fairness of the process boycotted all or some of the local and national races.
However, the observers did not call for a revote, and instead recommended that lessons drawn from the process be applied to next year's crucial referendum on southern independence.
Another setback for the vote came Saturday from a prominent opposition party, which said it would not recognize the election results, citing allegations of vote rigging by President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party.
The five days of voting, which ended Thursday, were the first multiparty presidential, parliamentary and local elections in 24 years in Sudan. They were a key requirement of a 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the country's predominantly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the Christian-animist south. The conflict left some 2 million people dead.
A monitoring team from the European Union said Saturday that key aspects of the election process were undermined. Names were missing from voter registries, election resources were not evenly spread to all parts of the vast country and there were cases of voter intimidation, said Veronique de Keyser, who led the 130-member team.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who headed a separate monitoring mission from his organization, came to a similar conclusion.
"It is too early to offer a final, overall assessment, but it is obvious that the elections will fall short of international standards," Carter said at a news conference. "The people's expectations have not been met."
Preliminary results from the presidential race showed the incumbent al-Bashir had won between 88 percent and 94 percent of votes counted after his most credible challengers dropped out of the race in protest.
Despite a standing international warrant for al-Bashir's arrest for alleged war crimes in the Darfur conflict, he was widely expected to win another five-year term. Final results are expected this week.
"Although these elections paved the way for democratic progress, it is essential that the shortcomings are addressed," de Keyser told reporters in the capital, Khartoum.
The EU mission had 130 observers at 13 percent of the country's polling stations. De Keyser said voter turnout was "very high" at 60 percent.
The Carter Center also pressed the need for a fair election process in the fragile country.
It said in its report that "subtle or forceful" intimidation was reported in many states, and security agents in uniforms or plain clothes have reportedly interfered in the election process, particularly in the south.
"Voters, candidates, polling staff, party agents and observers were the target of such intimidation," the report said. "The overall effect on free elections is worrying."
Also Saturday, Hassan Turabi, the head of the opposition Islamic Popular Congress Party, refused to accept the election results, saying incoming results were marred by "shameful fraud and blatant forgery." He vowed to challenge the results in court.
"We will not recognize the outcome of the elections except in flash points," he said.
Turabi was the brain behind the coup that brought al-Bashir to power in 1989, but the two had a falling out a decade ago. He was jailed last year for urging al-Bashir to face international war crimes charges tied to the conflict in Darfur, where Turabi has a strong following.
Another opposition party, the Democratic Unionist Party, also said it will not recognize results from the eastern province of Kassala, because of "irregularities."
Besides the north-south civil war, Sudan has been beset by a separate conflict in the western region of Darfur between government forces and rebel groups. An estimated 300,000 people died of violence, disease and displacement in that conflict, which began in 2003.
The elections are expected to keep in power in the semiautonomous south the region's largest party, the Sudan's People Liberation Movement, where it remains the best organized political force.
The SPLM is also a junior member of the national government. It boycotted the elections in the north, but is keen to see the vote accepted to ensure the 2011 referendum on southern secession proceeds as planned. Al-Bashir had threatened the referendum could be derailed if elections didn't go ahead on time.
KHARTOUM – Sudan's national election commission said on Monday it was extending voting for two days after logistical problems marred the beginning of the country's first competitive elections in 24 years.
"The number of voting days has been extended by two further days in all of Sudan" from three days to five, NEC spokesman Salah Habib told AFP.
"The decision is based on the results of the first day and to enable all the electors to vote and to compensate the lost time due to errors and obstacles of the first day," the NEC said later in a statement.
The former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which had on Sunday requested a four-day extension, said it would press for more days.
"I appreciate the effort of the NEC. We had requested for four more days... With two days we are quite satisfied... but we are still thinking it is not enough. We are going to press for more," Samson Kwaje, campaign manager for southern leader Salva Kiir, told reporters.
Earlier election monitor Jimmy Carter said in the south Sudan capital Juba there was "not much doubt" polling would be extended after a chaotic start on Sunday prompted cries of foul play and forced officials to admit "mistakes."
"There were some serious problems with the election process in some voting places where lists have been very difficult to find your names, where voters have difficulty finding their names," Carter told reporters.
"In some cases, wrong ballots were sent to other places in southern Sudan," the former US president said after visiting polling stations and meeting south Sudan leader Salva Kiir.
Sudanese nationwide are voting for president as well for legislative and local representatives in the country's first multi-party elections since 1986.
Southerners are also voting for the leader of the semi-autonomous government of south Sudan.
Queues -- one for men, one for women -- formed in stifling heat at voting stations in central Khartoum even before polling opened.
On Sunday both the queues and tempers were short as electoral officials battled with logistical problems, inadequate or incorrect voting material and irate voters who could not find their names on the lists.
In south Sudan village, voters eye independence
Officials said much of Sudan was calm on day two, although some problems were reported in a few areas.
An AFP correspondent said some outlying districts of Juba were still awaiting voting material on Monday, despite assurances they were on the way.
Party officials, meanwhile, said that while voting had finally begun in some villages in the eastern area of Kassala, the locations of some polling stations were changed without notice.
Several sources said tension was mounting in the state of Bahr al-Ghazal in the south where an independent candidate's popularity appeared to threaten the seat of the SPLM candidate.
Police on Monday said there had been no major incidents linked to the poll, however.
Complaints linked to voting procedures on Sunday compounded questions about the credibility of an election from which key candidates had already withdrawn ahead of polling day citing fraud.
Opposition parties accuse the National Congress Party of veteran President Omar al-Beshir, who seized power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, of plotting to fake an election victory.
Profile: Omar al-Beshir
The SPLM pulled out its national presidential candidate Yasser Arman, and former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi of the northern opposition Umma party also withdrew.
Former rebel leader Kiir is standing for election as president of the autonomous government in south Sudan that will lead the region to a promised referendum on independence next January.
The two votes are central planks of a 2005 peace deal between the SPLM and Beshir's government that ended two decades of civil war between the mainly Christian and animist south, and the mainly Muslim north.
Beshir in March last year became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court when it issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Family not party ties sway voters in Beshir's home village
On Monday, four peacekeepers with the joint United Nations-African Union force were reported missing in Darfur, where 300,000 people lost their lives in a seven-year civil war. Khartoum says 10,000 died in the conflict.
Africa 
There are dress rehearsals in Juba for the independence day ceremony 
President Omar al-Bashir warned 'brotherly relations' depend on non-interference in each others' affairs 
How do you set up a country? 
'Stone age' fears
Independent drinking
UN chief rejects Ivorian pullout
Bombers target Afghan army bases
In pictures
Credibility at stake
Sky's the limit
'This is America son'
A right royal knees-up
Fast Track
