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The IOC Session will vote on South Sudan's membership on
Sunday after a recommendation submitted by the executive board
on Tuesday, spokesman Mark Adams said.
"The Olympics is all about bridging gaps, building bridges
between communities. This a great signal to send to a troubled
region," Adams told reporters.
Thousands have been killed and more than 2.2 million displaced
since fighting broke out in December 2013 between President
Salva Kiir's government and rebels commanded by Riek Machar.
Both sides have been accused of human rights abuses and
indiscriminate killings, which have often been carried out along
ethnic lines, with Machar's Nuers pitted against Kiir's powerful
Dinkas.
South Sudan's marathon runner Guor Marial competed at the London
2012 Olympics but did so under the Olympic flag after refusing
to run for Sudan and with South Sudan not yet an IOC member.
Once the country is officially part of the IOC it can send a
team to next year's Rio de Janeiro Olympics who can compete
under its own flag.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
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