The African Union yesterday July 15 began holding its biannual summit of Heads of State and government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The two-day summit is expected to focus on another bid to resolve a deadlock over the election of a new AU Commission Chair.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma of South Africa and the incumbent, Jean Ping of Gabon, were expected to contest the election after none of them last January succeeded in securing the required two-thirds majority, leaving Ping in office for another six months. Reuters news agency reported that prior to the election, both candidates had issued strongly worded public statements. Earlier last week, Jean Ping dismissed South African media reports that he was quitting to allow Dlamini Zuma to stand unopposed.

According to the BBC, the AU has been broadly split along linguistic lines, with English-speaking countries tending to support Dlamini Zuma and French-speaking countries lining up behind Jean Ping. If the election fails again, Ping could be asked to stay until the next summit next January.

Jean Ping opened the summit, announcing that the organisation was ready to send troops to the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a peacekeeping force. Rwanda has been accused by UN experts, the government in Kinshasa and several international humanitarian organisations of supporting a mutiny by DRC troops.

Just like last January, the official theme of the summit is boosting intra-African trade. It is also expected to focus on the continuing instability in Mali, mounting violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and tension between Sudan and South Sudan.

Prior to the opening of the summit, Presidents Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and Salva Kiir of South Sudan met on Saturday July 14 for the first time since a border dispute brought their countries close to war in April. South Sudan became independent from the north a year ago with numerous issues still unresolved. A United Nations deadline for them to settle the dispute is set for August 2. Among other issues, the demarcation of their common border has not been finalised and there are disagreements over oilfields, oil transport payments and sharing of the national debt.