Splitting of Islamic country

An official shows a ballot paper to a South Sudanese man living in Kenya, at a polling station in Nairobi on January 9, 2011. (SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images)
A historic vote in Sudan
South Sudan, currently part of Sudan - the largest country in Africa, is holding a historic referendum this week following a 2005 peace treaty, where its citizens will decide whether to remain unified, or for South Sudan to secede and become a new nation. The 2005 treaty brought to an end decades of civil war between the Islamic north and predominantly Christian and animist south. (35 photos total)