African Union leaders appointed a chief for the organization’s daily operations over the weekend amid rising hostilities between the continent’s two largest economies.
At their annual summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the organization elected Djibouti Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf as the new chair for the African Union Commission in a secret ballot.
The now 60-year-old Youssouf beat out former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Madagascar’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs Richard Randriamandrato. This selection was after several rounds of voting.
Youssef was the runner-up through the first two rounds to Raila. He led in the next four rounds until he became the only candidate in the seventh round with 33 votes, needing a simple majority to win the election.
Mahmoud Ali replaces Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad, who has served as AU commissioner for two terms.
Areas for the new chief to focus on include advice by Youssouf, who has been the foreign affairs minister of the Republic of Djibouti since 2005, and thus, he’s the longest-serving minister, on the continent.
The summit is attended by all 55 AU member states except the six that have been suspended from membership. An Ethiopian FM official who asked not to be named since they were not authorized to speak to the media told VOA’s Horn of Africa service that there were 29 presidents, three vice presidents, four prime ministers, and a king present at the meeting.
A litany of crises for the new chief to inherit Coming to power also sees a growing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with disaster since M23 seized territory.
