AFRICAN leaders started meeting here on Monday for an African Union summit that will be dominated by the political unrest in Burundi and the migration crisis in the continent.

AFRICAN leaders started meeting here on Monday for an African Union summit that will be dominated by the political unrest in Burundi and the migration crisis in the continent.

Burundi has been plunged into a period of instability sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s push to run for a third five-year term.

Violent protests have left around 40 people dead while 100,000 people have fled the country, raising peace and security concerns in the region.

Other crises like the threat posed by Islamist militant groups are also on the agenda here.

“The situation in Burundi is still unresolved... and Nigeria, which is supposed to be an important player, still has challenges around Boko Haram,” said Tjiurimo Hengari, research fellow at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

“I see the next two years being very challenging, especially in light of a new threat that is emerging on the horizon -- the issue of constitutional revisions to allow sitting heads of state third terms and fourth terms.”

In another development, African leaders have passed a resolution to include the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in the official activities of the continental body, compulsorily subjecting all the AU members to the good governance testing machinery.

The Minister of State in the President’s Office, Good Governance, Mr George Mkuchika, said here over the weekend that the new resolution automatically subjects all AU members to the self-assessment programme, enhancing good governance in the continent.

“Membership to the review mechanism is currently voluntary, giving room for some countries to snub the initiative, but when it becomes compulsory all countries will have to oblige in favour of good governance,” Mr Mkuchika told the ‘Daily News’ on the sidelines of the 25th AU Summit here.

Out of the AU’s 54 member states, only 35 countries have volunteered for scrutiny under APRM that entails a comprehensive investigation by experts, with the country’s head of state appearing before a critical panel of their fellow leaders to defend their respective countries’ performance But the summit, which often fails to grapple with thorny issues, is likely to be overshadowed by the expected presence of Sudan’s President Omar al- Bashir.

Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court over war crimes charges, faces arrest if he lands on South African soil, and has not visited the country since his indictment by the court in 2009 and 2010. As a signatory to the Rome Statute which established the ICC, South Africa is obliged to arrest the Sudanese leader.

AU spokesman Molalet Tsedeke told AFP Saturday that he had been informed that Bashir was expected to attend the meeting. “He is coming,” said Tsedeke. African leaders remain divided on the ICC statute, with AU chairman Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe urging African leaders in January to pull out of the treaty.

Mugabe and South African President Jacob Zuma are among those scheduled to speak today. Also attending is Nigeria’s newly-appointed President Muhammadu Buhari, whose country is battling the onslaught of Islamist group Boko Haram. The leaders of Africa’s other major economies, Egypt and Angola, are absent.

The summit in South Africa’s economic capital comes two months after a wave of xenophobic violence swept parts of Johannesburg and Durban as African immigrants were hunted down and attacked by gangs. The two-day summit comes only five months after the last gathering of AU heads of state in Addis Ababa in January.

Meanwhile, a South African judge barred Sudan’s indicted president from leaving the country today in a deepening rift between Africa and the West over what Pretoria called anti-poor country bias in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

President al-Bashir stands accused in an ICC arrest warrant of war crimes and crimes against humanity over atrocities committed in the Darfur conflict. He was first indicted in 2009.

A judge is tomorrow expected to hear an application calling for Bashir’s arrest, though this appears unlikely as South Africa’s government has granted legal immunity to all AU delegates.

South African President Jacob Zuma’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) responded furiously to today’s court order, accusing the Haguebased ICC of seeking to impose selective Western justice by singling out Africans.

“The ANC holds the view that the International Criminal Court is no longer useful for the purposes for which it was intended,” the ANC said in a statement. “Countries, mainly in Africa and Eastern Europe ... continue to unjustifiably bear the brunt of the decisions of the ICC, with Sudan being the latest example.”

A human rights group, the Southern African Litigation Centre, earlier petitioned the Pretoria High Court to force the government to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir.

Judge Hans Fabricius postponed the hearing until 0930 GMT tomorrow to allow the government time to prepare its case, urging South African authorities to “take all necessary steps” to prevent Bashir leaving the country.

Sudan’s government defended the South African visit of Bashir, who was sworn in this month in Khartoum for another five-year term, and said the court order had “no value”