Egypt regains membership in African Union

The African Union's Peace and Security Council has unanimously agreed to unfreeze Egypt's membership to the AU, state news agency MENA reported on Tuesday. The decision comes after almost a year of Egypt being suspended from the 54-nation bloc just days after the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi, citing a need to restore "constitutional order". It is the AU's policy to suspend any member state that undergoes an "unconstitutional" change of government. However, in April – a few weeks before the presidential election which brought Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to power – AU head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that Egypt would return to the union after the implementation of its transitional roadmap. Egypt has so far finalised two out of three milestones of its post-Morsi roadmap, ratifying a new constitution in January and electing a new president in May. The last step is the election of a parliament, the procedures for which must commence before 17 July, according to 2014's amended national charter. On Sunday, El-Sisi was invited to attend an extraordinary African Summit taking place in Ouagadougou on 6-7 September.