President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has underlined the need to redouble efforts to support African countries to have peaceful resolutions to conflicts .

As the outgoing AU chairperson, the president said the ongoing conflicts in South Sudan, Libya, Burundi, DR Congo, Somalia and other African countries remain source of concern for all.

Mugabe was speaking on Saturday during the opening of the 26th AU summit at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.

Mugabe has served the rotating AU chairmanship for 2015, and he said issues of peace and security were high on AU’s agenda during his year-long term.

He stated that the African continent has seen notable gains in the peace and security arena despite new and recurring challenges.

“In line with our aspiration to silence the guns by 2020, matters of peace and security were high on our agenda in 2015. Despite new and recurring challenges, our continent witnesses some notable successes and overly there was political stability,” Mugabe said.

“I congratulate several AU member states, which in 2015 successfully held parliamentary and presidential elections,” he said, “Once again, we have amply demonstrated that Africa has come of age and that democracy is alive on our continent,” Mugabe noted.

The president further said that terrorism has become a major scourge and challenge in many parts of Africa which adversely affect the peace and safety of African people.

“This evil phenomenon threatens to reverse the gains made in the integration and development of our continent. The challenge for us all is to combine our efforts to fight and defeat terrorism in all its manifestations,” he added.

Mugabe also hailed the successful conduct of the African Standby Force AMANI AFRICA-II Field Training Exercise (AA-II FTX).

“Central to the AU security architecture is the African standby force and its rapid deployment capability; the success of AMANI Africa-II field exercises which were held in South Africa in October-November 2015, means that we now can deploy the African standby force as a tool for conflict prevention,” he said.

The AU Peace and Security Council last week held its meeting on the African Standby Force AMANI AFRICA-II Field Training Exercise which was concluded in November 2015.