Leaders of the 55-nation continental grouping voted to pass this ceremonial role to South Africa when Egypt’s turn ends in 2020.

South Africa will be serving the second year of its rotating membership of the United Nations Security Council next year.

So having the presidency of the African Union will give South Africa a particularly significant international role.

The last time South Africa held the AU leadership was in 2002 when Thabo Mbeki was president.

Cyril Ramaphosa, who is expected to be South Africa’s president next year, is already being pushed to campaign for  human rights – particularly in Africa – if and when he succeeds Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah El Sisi who is expected to emphasize security and peacekeeping during his AU presidency 

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Diane Rwigara, a 37-year-old businesswoman expressed relief at the judges calling the charges ‘baseless’ and said she would continue campaigning against human rights violations in Rwanda.

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Amnesty International welcomes the acquittal of Diane Rwigara and her mother Adeline and says they should never have been charged and imprisoned for more than a year.

President Paul Kagame faces a flood of international criticism for his spiteful pursuit of a political opponent that included auctioning her personal assets.

Rwigara remained defiant despite facing a 22-year jail sentence and  maintain  she will vociferously champion human rights being trampled by Kagame.

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President of the European Council Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker are attending.

This is the first summit between these strategic partners since 2013.

South Africa is the only African country that has relations with the EU at this level and one of 10 internationally.

Their relationship is moving from one of dependency to partnership.

With economy topping the agenda,  President Cyril Ramaphosa will have another opportunity to showcase South Africa as an investment destination as part of his plans to draw a trillion rand into the country over the next five years.

The summit will also deal with international challenges like climate change, migration and human rights.

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It is not clear what sparked fighting between the Oromos and Somali groups that make 40 percent of the country’s 102 million population.

The Oromo and Somali Ethiopians are often at daggers drawn over  grazing  disputes.

They don’t live together well and both have issues with government encroaching on their territory.

Just a week ago, Ethiopian troops fired on Oromo protesters killing 16.

This violence puts Ethiopia – home to the African  Union – increasingly under international security.

The country is making considerable economic progress but this is being marred by its parlous human rights record and the increasingly heavy-handed official response to criticism and disputes.

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Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba says Donald Trump should be left to do what he believes is good for the United States while the Pretoria government  should be allowed to do what it believes is best for South Africa.

But, he says, South Africa does not agree with the measures taken by Trump to block refugees from certain countries.

The minister says South Africa has an immigration policy based on human rights, humane treatment of people in distress and African solidarity.

Gigaba says South Africa would never ban person from a certain country or because  of religious, gender or sexual orientation.

He  says it violates international law to impose a collective ban on people – except people belonging to to an organisation injurious to national interests.

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elections in Sudan.

Its leader, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obanjo stops short of characterising the four-day

poll as free and fair.

A week into this month, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council overruled the

recommendation by its assessment mission to Sudan against sending an observer mission to the

elections.

The team arrived late  in Sudan  and armed with an Amnesty International report relating to human

rights suppression in the host country.

Asked if what the AU observers saw was a free and fair process, Obasanjo tells a press

conference in the capital an hour after polls closed that some measures will have to be taken to

achieve this.

He accepts security concerns by the authorities but says the elections would have been enhanced

had they fully respected basic freedoms and human rights.

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