Burundi’s President, Évariste Ndayishimiye, has been elected Chairperson of the African Union at the 39th Ordinary Summit of the continental body.

Ndayishimiye takes over the rotational AU chairmanship from Angola’s President, João Lourenço.

He pledged to scale up and mobilise private sector support to operationalise the 2026 theme of the summit, drawing on Burundi's experience with addressing challenges.