President El-Sisi Invited To Extraordinary African Summit

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has been invited to attend an extraordinary African Summit taking place at Ouagadougou on 6-7 September, according to Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website.

The invitation was sent by Burkina Faso’s leader Blaise Compaore.

The summit was called by members of the African Union (AU), with a focus on employment and poverty eradication in the continent.

Egypt’s membership in the AU has remained frozen since last July, when the 54-nation bloc suspended Egypt from all its activities just days after the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi, citing a need to restore “constitutional order.” It is the AU’s policy to suspend any member state that undergoes an “unconstitutional” change of government.

In January, Egypt was troubled by a decision by Washington, a long-time ally, to exclude it from a high-profile African summit convened by US President Barack Obama, citing the AU suspension.

However, in April – a few weeks before the presidential election which brought El-Sisi to power – AU head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that Egypt would return to the union after the implementation of its transitional roadmap.

Egypt has so far finalised two out of three milestones of its post-Morsi roadmap, ratifying a new constitution in January and electing a new president in May.

The last step is the election of a parliament, the procedures for which must commence before 17 July, according to 2014’s amended national charter.

Source : Ahram online