1.   Many northerners like Mustafa are ready to seek peace at any cost, even if it means letting the south secede.

2.   Alliance has promised referendum on whether south can secede from mainly Muslim, Arab-speaking north.

3.   The peace agreement stipulates that after four years, Sudan will hold a referendum in which southerners will decide whether the south should secede or remain part of Sudan.

4.   Meanwhile Baid, stripped of his duties in the early days of the war, admitted to Saudi television MBC that the south could secede from the north.