President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa was elected on Sunday chairman of the African Union for a year, Today News Africa reported.

The election took place at the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The powers of the chair passed to Cyril Ramafos from the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, based on rotation mechanism.

The President of South Africa has already identified two major peacekeeping topics of his chairmanship: the settlement of the situation in Libya and the full implementation of the peace agreement in South Sudan. 

The African Union, which unites 55 states of the continent, was founded in the summer of 2002 as the successor to the Organization of African Unity. Its headquarters is in Addis Ababa.