What’s up in South Sudan?

I’m catching up on the news and interesting commentary about South Sudan’s ongoing independence referendum. Here are some things that caught my eye.

• A necessary secession. The nuts and bolts overview if you’re unfamiliar with what’s at stake.
• Sudan border clashes kill 36 as south votes. Violence in the Abyei region.
• Photos from the historic day. The UN Dispatch has some great pics from the first day of voting.
• What happens next? Not much actually changes, says Lee Crawfurd.
• The Referendum Hangover. Maggie Fick discusses the post-referendum issues in more detail: settling the status of the Abyei region, figuring out the sharing of oil revenues, and (oh yeah) demarcating the actual border.
• Breakaway Somaliland hooked on Sudan referendum. Why Somalia’s breakaway province is interested in South Sudan’s pending independence.
• Sudan referendum: what to watch. Laura Seay (Texas in Africa) expresses concerns over the future of the Southern Sudanese state, and provides a list of other interesting links.
• And then there was George Clooney, who has sparked quite a debate among the development blogs with his advocacy of a project to watch for genocide by satellite. Here’s a summary of the project, some characteristically snarky criticism from @laurenist, coverage of the controversy from Joshua Keating in Foreign Policy, and a defense of Clooney from Jenny Stefanotti.