CAIRO, Jan 28 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt secured on Thursday a three-year membership at the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union.

The council's elections took place Thursday morning on the sidelines the AU Summit which is to be held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The PSC is comprised of 15 members, five of whom are elected for a three-year term and the remaining 10 elected for a two-year term.

Egypt won one of the two seats allocated for North Africa and is expected to take up office on the first of April.

The 26th AU Summit will take place on the course of two days January 30-31. 

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will set off Friday to the Ethiopian capital to attend the summit.

The PSC suspended Egypt's participation in its activities, two days following the military ouster of former president Mohamed Mursi on July 3, 2013.

In a statement then, the PSC said the suspension will prevail "until the restoration of constitutional order."

The suspension was lifted almost a year later in June 2014 "considering the progress made in the formal restoration of constitutional order."

The decision came about two weeks after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi won a sweeping victory in the presidential elections garnering more than 96 per cent of Egyptian votes.

Recently, Egypt secured a non-permanent member seat at the United Nations Security Council for which it ran unopposed last October for the 2016-2017 term.