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Voter registration for the January referendum began Monday, a process which could lead to the partition of Sudan.

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Returnees from north Sudan wait in line for World Food Program (WFP) staff to start distributing food in Aweil in the northern Bahr el Ghazal state in south Sudan December 29, 2010. People from Sudan's oil-producing south are widely expected to vote to split away to form Africa's newest nation in a referendum scheduled to take place on January 9, 2011 that was promised in a 2005 peace deal ending a civil war between north and southGORAN TOMASEVIC

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A resident of the remote south central Southern Sudan village of Nyal receives his voting registration card from a referendum worker at a local school on November 15, 2010. Voter registration for a January referendum in south Sudan kicked off across the country and abroad, launching a process which could lead to the partition of Africa's largest country. The January referendums in southern Sudan and the oil-rich Abyei region straddling north and south are part of a 2005 peace deal that ended a two-decade-old civil war in Sudan which left an estimated two million dead.ROBERTO SCHMIDT

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A resident of the remote south central Southern Sudan village of Nyal looks at his voting registration card at a local school being used as a voter registration office on November 15, 2010. Voter registration for a January referendum in south Sudan kicked off on Monday across the country and abroad, launching a process which could lead to the partition of Africa's largest country. The January referendums in southern Sudan and the oil-rich Abyei region straddling north and south are part of a 2005 peace deal that ended a two-decade-old civil war in Sudan which left an estimated two million dead.ROBERTO SCHMIDT

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Southern Sudanese women hold crosses and flags to support the referendum on southern independence, during a Christmas Eve procession in Juba December 24, 2010. The January 9 referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war and analysts have warned disagreements over the vote could reignite conflict.© Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

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World Food Program (WFP) staff unload food to be distributed to returnees from north Sudan in Aweil in the northern Bahr el Ghazal state in south Sudan December 29, 2010. People from Sudan's oil-producing south are widely expected to vote to split away to form Africa's newest nation in a referendum scheduled to take place on January 9, 2011 that was promised in a 2005 peace deal ending a civil war between north and south.GORAN TOMASEVIC

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Southern Sudanese men store referendum polling kits inside a warehouse in Juba December 23, 2010. People from Sudan's oil-producing south are widely expected to vote to split away to form Africa's newest nation in a referendum scheduled to take place on Jan. 9 that was promised in a 2005 peace deal ending a civil war between north and south.GORAN TOMASEVIC

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Hundreds of returnees arrive in the port of the southern Sudanese city of Juba on December 17, 2010 after a two-week journey, first by bus and then down the Nile by boat from Khartoum. Across south Sudan, people have been returning form the north, many of them having not been back to the area in decades, on a trip financed by the South Sudan regional government whose presidential aide said on December 16 that the south will probably choose secession in a referendum weeks away because efforts aimed at promoting unity had failed.AFP

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Southern Sudanese women hold crosses and flags to support the referendum on southern independence, during a Christmas Eve procession in Juba December 24, 2010. The January 9 referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war and analysts have warned disagreements over the vote could reignite conflict.© Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

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An official from the South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) registers a voter in Juba, south Sudan, December 8, 2010. The semi-autonomous south Sudan is due to vote on its future on Jan. 9, the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest civil war. The south is expected to choose secession.© STR New / Reuters

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