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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The African Union has postponed releasing a report which is expected to reveal those responsible for atrocities committed in the violence in South Sudan, the chairman of a commission inquiry into the conflict said Friday.
The African Union Peace and Security Council deferred releasing the report to advance a mediation process that is about "to achieve the formation of an interim government of national unity," former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said. Obasanjo spoke at the two-day African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital.
Rights groups have criticized the African Union for not releasing the report saying it would have helped bring accountability. The report has been presented to African Union Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Fighting broke out December 2013 between President Salva Kiir's troops and those loyal to Riek Machar, who is Kiir's former vice president.
The two sides have signed several peace deals brokered by neighboring governments, but none has actually stopped the warfare in the oil-rich country.
Much of the violence has pitted the Dinkas, who back Kiir, against the Nuer, who support Machar. Gross atrocities were committed by both sides, including the killings of elderly patients in hospital wards as well as the slaughter of hundreds of civilians in the capital last December, according to human rights groups.
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