"ITU is pleased to announce that the world's newest nation, the Republic of South Sudan, has today been assigned the international dialing code 211, following the country's formal recognition as a United Nations (UN) member state," said a statement posted on the ITU website Thursday.

In addition to the country code, the nation of 8 million people will be assigned a mobile country code (MCC) and a signaling area/network code (SANC). SANCs facilitate all telephone calls by indicating how calls should be routed.

The code has "particular resonance for South Sudan's citizens as representing the year in which South Sudan gained independence (2011), the date of its referendum (which took place in the first day of the first month of 2011), and a symbol of good fortune," the .

The dialing code was specifically requested following a special council of ministers resolution, the ITU said. The same council reportedly requested .ss as the country's top-level domain registration from ICANN.

South Sudan, which is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Texas, became the newest country in the world at midnight local time on July 9. In a January referendum, nearly 99 percent of voters chose independence from Sudan. South Sudan had been semi-independent since a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement aimed at ending the second Sudanese civil war, which started in 1983 and was a continuation of an earlier civil war that lasted from 1955 to 1972.