Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
African leaders chose Djibouti’s Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf to chair the African Union commission at the bloc’s summit in Addis Ababa on Saturday.
Youssouf overcame the favorite, Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and Madagascar’s former Foreign Minister Richard Randriamandrato after several rounds of voting. He has been Djibouti’s foreign minister since 2005, and his first major challenge in his new role will be finding diplomatic paths to ending conflicts in eastern DR Congo and Sudan.
Analysts previously told Semafor that the incoming chair, who is responsible for running the daily operations of the bloc that represents 55 member states, must oversee “urgent reforms” within the organization to more effectively address the continent’s needs. These include giving the AU’s parliament binding legislative authority and preventing member states from flouting the rulings of its human rights court.
