Burundi’s Ndayishimiye takes AU chair as bloc warns of geopolitical turbulence
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The African Union on Saturday elected Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye as its chairperson for 2026, closing a high-level summit in Addis Ababa where leaders elevated water security, institutional reform and regional stability as urgent priorities.
- Advertisement -
Ndayishimiye assumes the rotating leadership from Angolan President João Lourenço at the conclusion of the AU’s 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, held at the bloc’s headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
The two-day summit focused on ensuring sustainable water availability and safe sanitation systems, a pillar of Agenda 2063, the AU’s long-term development blueprint. Delegations framed access to water not only as a development target, but as a public health and security imperative for a continent increasingly squeezed by climate change, rapid urbanization and resource-driven conflict.
Leaders said strengthening water and sanitation infrastructure has become inseparable from efforts to reduce poverty, improve health outcomes and stabilize communities vulnerable to drought, flooding and displacement. The framing signaled a push to integrate water management more directly into national planning, cross-border cooperation and climate adaptation programs.
For Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the theme carried domestic urgency. Nigerian officials pointed to the alignment between the AU’s emphasis on water security and Abuja’s ongoing challenges in guaranteeing potable water access, slowing environmental degradation and addressing farmer-herder tensions intensified by resource scarcity. Nigeria has been among the member states urging stronger continental coordination to build resilient infrastructure and expand climate financing.
Even as development took center stage, security concerns shadowed the proceedings. AU Commission Chair Mahmoud Ali Youssouf warned heads of state about “mounting geopolitical turbulence” and the destabilizing effects of protracted conflicts and political shocks across several regions. He highlighted the resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government and urged member states to accelerate political and economic integration to harden the bloc’s resilience.
Youssouf also pressed for a shift in the AU’s financing model, calling for reduced reliance on external funding to safeguard the union’s autonomy and accelerate delivery on its priorities. That appeal echoed long-standing debates inside the bloc about reforming its institutions and funding architecture so that peace operations, development programs and humanitarian responses are less vulnerable to shifting donor agendas.
Summit discussions underscored the interdependence of infrastructure, governance and security. Leaders linked water-system investments to conflict prevention and livelihoods, argued that institutional reform is essential to executing Agenda 2063 and stressed that regional integration can blunt the spillover effects of crises.
- Summit priorities: water security and sanitation, institutional reform, regional stability
- Strategic warning: “mounting geopolitical turbulence” and unconstitutional changes of government
- Policy push: stronger integration and reduced dependence on external financing
- National lens: Nigeria highlights water access, environmental degradation and farmer-herder tensions
With Saturday’s decision, Ndayishimiye becomes the public face of the AU’s agenda-setting over the coming cycle, tasked with steering consensus among member states and keeping focus on water resilience, governance reforms and stability efforts. The chairmanship, while largely ceremonial, can help set priorities and mobilize attention across Africa’s institutions at a time when climate stress, fiscal pressures and security shocks threaten to stall progress.
Leaders closed the session by underlining that durable solutions will depend on consistent national commitments and stronger continental mechanisms—from financing pipelines to data-sharing and cross-border project management—to translate summit declarations into measurable gains in health, security and economic opportunity.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
