TVC E, NEWS – Chadian President Idriss Debby has emerged the new chairman of the African Union.
Debby was unveiled during the 26th African Union Summit holding in Addis Ababa.
African heads of state and government gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Saturday (January 30), to take part in the 26th African Union (AU) summit.
The continent-wide body, is scheduled to tackle a broad agenda centred on women’s empowerment, infrastructure development and peace and security in the region.
The ongoing crisis in Burundi is one of the top issues up for discussion.
The bloc wants to deploy 5,000 peacekeepers in the central African state, where hundreds have died in the worst violence since an ethnically charged civil war ended in 2005.
But President Pierre Nkurunziza – who triggered the crisis by standing for a third term in July elections – has rejected the plan, saying the arrival of any such force would be seen as an invasion.
African Union leaders are expected to try to persuade Nkurunziza to accept the force during the AU summit this weekend but diplomats said they were not optimistic that he would change tack.
The crisis in South Sudan, where a civil war is tearing the young country apart, is also expected to be discussed.
President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed a peace deal in August but both sides have consistently broken a ceasefire, while human rights violations have “continued unabated and with full impunity,” the U.N. has said.
The two-day summit, which will end on Sunday evening, was preceded by a meeting of African foreign ministers.
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