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Chadian
President Idriss Deby has been in power since 1990 ©Ahmed Ouoba (AFP)
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Chad's President Idriss
Deby took over the post of African Union chairman on Saturday, replacing
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
AFP
report continues:
"I
accept this task with pleasure, but with a little agony as the responsibility
you entrust in me is heavy and fraught with challenges," Deby said, in
speech at AU headquarters in Ethiopia.
He
told fellow presidents that conflicts across the continent had to end.
"Everything
that we are doing now will be in vain and without purpose if we allow Africa to
go through these perpetual crises: South Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Burundi, the
Sahel, the Lake Chad basin," Deby said.
"Through
diplomacy or by force... we must put an end to these tragedies of our time. We
cannot make progress and talk of development if part of our body is sick. We
should be the main actors in the search for solution to Africa's crises."
Deby,
63, one of Africa's longest ruling presidents, emerged as the leader of the
arid north-central African state in December 1990, after the war which ousted
the regime of Hissène Habré.
Mugabe,
Africa's oldest president aged 91, has held the ceremonial role for the past
year, welcomed his "brother" Deby to the post.
"Whatever
support you want from me, I will still be there, until God says come, then I'll
go and join the others," Mugabe said. "But as long as I am still
alive, I will still have the punch."
The one-year presidency
which rotates between different regions of the continent.
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