Leadership battle to dominate African Union Summit
Once again shaking tradition by challenging the sitting
chairman, South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma takes on incumbent Jean Ping of
Gabon, after neither won the two-thirds needed at the last summit, leaving Ping
in the post.
They will face off again on July 15 in a bid for the head of
the bloc's executive, which Ping has held since 2008.
Security issues on the continent will be a major focus at
the summit, but analysts said the leadership race will once again take centre
stage, with bad blood from the last contest already straining relations between
some leaders. “Who will be the next chairperson of the AU will be the main
interest issue around this particular summit,” said Alex Vines, Africa director
at the London-based think tank Chatham House. The July 15-16 conference was
moved from Malawi after the country's new president, Joyce Banda, refused to
host Sudan's leader Omar al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court
on war crimes and genocide charges.
Banda said her country's relations with international donors
would suffer if Bashir was hosted on Malawian soil, and has since announced she
will not attend the meeting in the Ethiopian capital.
Deputy head of the AU Commission, Kenya's Erastus Mwencha,
said the crisis in Mali and bitter rows between Sudan and South Sudan -- who
clashed in March and April in disputed border regions -- will dominate the
peace and security agenda. AFP
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