Chadian President Idriss Debby has emerged the new chairman of the African Union heads of states and governments.

Idriss took over from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and was unveiled on Saturday at 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.

"I accept this task with pleasure, but with a little agony as the responsibility you entrust in me is heavy and fraught with challenges," Deby said, in speech at AU headquarters in Ethiopia.

He told fellow presidents that conflicts across the continent had to end.

"Everything that we are doing now will be in vain and without purpose if we allow Africa to go through these perpetual crises: South Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Burundi, the Sahel, the Lake Chad basin," Deby said.

"Through diplomacy or by force... we must put an end to these tragedies of our time. We cannot make progress and talk of development if part of our body is sick. We should be the main actors in the search for solution to Africa's crises."

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.

Mugabe, Africa's oldest president aged 91, has held the ceremonial role for the past year, welcomed his "brother" Deby to the post.

"Whatever support you want from me, I will still be there, until God says come, then I'll go and join the others," Mugabe said. "But as long as I am still alive, I will still have the punch."

Deby, 63, one of Africa's longest-ruling presidents, emerged as the leader of the arid north-central African state in December 1990, after the war which ousted the regime of Hissene Habre.

The one-year presidency which rotates between different regions of the continent.

http://www.dailyafricagist.com/discussion/6108/AU

Great

Una go halla my name one day oooooooooooo

Another long serving president is the chairman of AU again? Then how can the AU be able to help put an end to this ``one president for life'' pattern of some African rulers when they the perpetrators of this act continue to be at the helm of affairs in the union? It pains me that in most of these countries, there are people with new ideas but never get the chance to rule. pity!