Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), January 30, 2017 (SPS) – Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat was elected Monday, in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), as chairman of the African Union Commission during the works of the 28th Conference of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, taking place in the Ethiopian capital.
Mahamat succeeds to South African Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who was the chairperson of the AU strategic body since 2012, and who did not wish to run for a second mandate.
This election was supposed to be held during the African Union Summit held in July 2016 in Kigali (Rwanda), but it was postponed to the Addis Ababa Summit.
The new chairman of the Commission was up against four other candidates, namely Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed, that of Botswana Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, that of Equatorial Guinea Agapito Mba Mokuy and Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily.
Mahamat becomes the 5th personality to be elected to this position after Ivorian Amara Essy (2002-2003), Malian Alpha Oumar Konaré (2003-2008), Gabonese Jean Ping (2008-2012), and South African Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma (2012-2017).
Mahamat, 57, has been minister of Foreign Affairs since 2008.SPS
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