While most Austin residents found Monday to be normal, it was a momentous occasion for the 300 or so Sudanese residents in town.

The Southern Sudan Referendum Commission finalized a referendum vote Monday to make the southern part of Sudan its own country. An overwhelming majority of southern Sudanese voted in favor of the split.

“I’m personally very happy,” said Santino Deng, one of the Sudanese community leaders in Austin and one of the organizers for the SSRC. “It means peace for Sudan.”

Election officials said Monday that more than 98 percent of ballots in the Jan. 9 vote were for independence. That means South Sudan will become the world’s newest country in July.

“It’s the dream so many generations that have died and gone were looking for, this day,” Deng said.

Sudan has spent much of the past century embroiled in war. Over the past 50 years, the country suffered through several civil wars and rebellions, most recently a civil war between the northern government and southern rebels who sought religious freedom from the northern government.

After more than two decades of fighting, Sudan’s government and southern rebels brokered a peace agreement in 2005, giving the southern part of the country autonomy for six years followed by a referendum for independence.

President Barack Obama said the United States intends to formally recognize Southern Sudan as a sovereign, independent state in July.

Obam congratulated the people of Southern Sudan for “a successful and inspiring” referendum.

Deng was one of many Sudanese Americans who organized the voting process for refuges in the U.S. He helped organize voting registration on a national level last November, with the vote happening in early January.

On the local level, Sudenese residents in Austin and Rochester organized a mass trip to Omaha, Neb., where the SSRC set up voting. The Civil Society, as the group is called, organized two shuttle buses and received donations from local churches, including a mini-bus from St. Olaf Lutheran Church. More than 200 residents from Austin and Rochester traveled to Omaha on Jan. 9 to cast their vote, although not all came via buses.

Now, with a new peaceful country where their homeland once was, many Sudanese residents are overjoyed.

“There will be no war, and people in Southern Sudan will be free,” Deng said.

The challenges are not over for southern Sudan. Decades of war and poverty have kept Southern Sudan in a decrepit state, and its 8.7 million people live in one of the least developed regions in the world. The U.N. says a 15-year-old girl here has a higher chance of dying in childbirth than finishing school. An estimated 85 percent of the population is illiterate.

Adding to the challenges, the prices of some everyday goods like sugar, soap and cooking oil have increased by more than 50 percent in recent weeks.

“The list is long,” said Athai Peter, 25, as he stood at a job advertisement board outside a U.N. agency on Monday. “The roads are so poor in many places that we have very high food prices.”

A new currency must be established. Diplomatic missions need to be opened. And a country name must be chosen.

Critical negotiations still must be held with the north to decide on citizenship rights, oil rights and even the final border demarcation.

The U.S. national intelligence director warned last year of a possible new mass killing or genocide in Sudan over the referendum. That no longer looks likely.

—The Associated Press contributed to this report