JUBA (Reuters) - Thousands of South Sudanese danced through the night to mark the first hours of their independence on Saturday, a hard-won separation from the north that also plunged the fractured region into a new period of uncertainty.
The Republic of South Sudan, an under-developed oil producer, became the world's newest nation on the stroke of midnight.
It won its independence in a January referendum -- the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north.
Security forces at first tried to control the dusty streets of the southern capital Juba, but retreated as jubilant crowds moved in waving flags, dancing and chanting "South Sudan o-yei, freedom o-yei."
After the sun came up, thousands poured onto the site of the day's independence ceremony -- a possible headache for officials keen to guard dignitaries including the President of Sudan, the south's old civil war foe, Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
Years of war have flooded South Sudan with weapons.
In a possible sign of the South's new allegiances, the crowd included about 200 supporters of Darfur rebel leader Abdel Wahed al-Nur, whose forces are fighting Khartoum in an eight-year insurgency just over South Sudan's border in the north.
The supporters of Nur's rebel Sudan Liberation Army faction stood in a line chanting "Welcome, welcome new state," wearing T-shirts bearing their leader's image. One carried a banner reading "El Bashir is wanted dead or alive."
Traditional dance groups drummed and waved shields and staffs in a carnival atmosphere.
"I am very pleased," said Joma Cirilow, 47, his hand on his son's shoulder. "Do you want to be a second class citizen? No, I want to be a first class citizen in my own country."
Christian priests in full robes blessed the ceremony site in central Juba where a large statue stood draped in a flag near the mausoleum of the south's civil war hero John Garang.
"Today we raise the flag of South Sudan to join the nations of the world. A day of victory and celebration," Pagan Amum, the secretary general of the South's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) told Reuters.
"Free at last," said Simon Agany, 34, as he walked around shaking hands. "Coming away from the north is total freedom."
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