The 26th African Union (AU) Summit was held in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, in late January. The theme of this summit was about human rights in this continent. How to solve the Burundi crisis and how to cope with terrorism are the two new challenges topping the summit agenda.

The Burundi crisis began in April 2015. Because of people's protests after the ruling party elected President Pierre Nkurunziza for a controversial third term in office, demonstrations and armed conflict broke out in Burundi.

So far, the conflict has led to over 400 people killed and more than 200,000 fleeing to neighboring countries. On December 18, the Peace and Security Council (PSC) decided to send a troop of 5,000 soldiers to prevent the explosion of massacres and genocide, as happened in Burundi and Rwanda in the 1990s, but this was rejected by the Burundi side.

In this AU Summit, participants had an intense debate on whether African peacekeeping troops should be sent to Burundi to resolve its political crisis. The PSC and most African countries, including Nigeria, were for troop deployment and against the incumbent presidents of some African countries seeking to extend their terms by means of constitutional amendment and forced election.

But there were some countries, such as South Africa, Tanzania and Gambia, that opposed sending peacekeeping troops to Burundi. The Burundi government threatened to treat peacekeeping troops sent without their invitation as "intruders" and said Burundi would battle foreign armies that attempt to deploy in the East African country.

The AU Summit had to make a compromise to send high-level delegates rather than 5,000 peacekeepers to Burundi. Yet Chadian Idriss Deby, who just took over as chair of the AU, as successor to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, warned of possible armed attacks if the crisis worsens.

The compromise and the insistence on military interventions of the AU fully reflect the difference between its hope to maintain constitutionality and democracy and its capability of execution. It is also embarrassing that the member states of the AU cannot reach an agreement easily on important issues and speak with one voice.

Coping with the spread of terrorism in Africa is another new challenge facing the AU Summit.

The North African unrest and Libyan Civil War ended in 2011, and since then undercurrents of turbulence and terror have been flowing in Africa under the surface of stability. After some North African countries such as Libya, Egypt and Tunisia underwent political and social reforms, Islamic extremists' influence expanded.

After the Libyan Civil War, Al Qaeda in North Africa came back with a vengeance and plenty of weapons and militants were dispersed from Libya to neighboring countries like Mali, Niger and Mauritania, directly leading to the growth of terrorist activities in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria and Kenya since the second half of 2011.

Now, three Islamic militant groups in Africa, namely the North African Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Somali Al-Shabaab and Nigerian Boko Haram, have started to work together, and the extremist terrorist group Islamic State, which was originally based in Iraq and Syria, has built a stronghold in Sirte, Libya as well. So the focus of anti-terrorism has shifted to Africa.

Nigeria and Kenya have both been hard-hit by continuous terrorist attacks in recent years and both were elected to the PSC of the AU in this summit, which tried to solve major security issues in Africa with other elected countries.

There is no difference of principle on anti-terrorism among African countries, which are determined to work together and solidly fight against terrorism, and especially to prevent it spreading among young people.

African countries are faced with a new challenge; how to fight against terrorism and in the meantime avoid the intensified military presence of Western powers in the name of anti-terrorism. They also face the difficulty of sorting out the relationship between anti-terrorism and development, and preventing the first from eclipsing the second.

The author is a senior research fellow at the Charhar Institute and a research fellow at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn