Chad’s Moussa Faki Mahamat Elected AU Chairman
Moussa Faki Mahamat[/caption]
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Chad’s Moussa Faki Mahamat has been elected as the new chairperson of the African Union Commission, in a vote held at the bloc’s headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Monday.
Mahamat was elected by Heads of state from the 54-member countries in a private ballot at the union’s headquarters in, Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital on Monday.
He defeated four others – Kenya’s Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed, Abdoulaye Bathily, a Senegalese diplomat and academic, Botswana’s Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, and Mba Mokuy, a former political adviser from Equatorial Guinea.
The AU was supposed to pick a new leader in July last year but the election was postponed following three rounds of voting after candidates failed to garner the required number of votes. A candidate needs to secure at least a two-thirds majority, 36 votes, to be declared winner.
The 56-year-old former prime minister has been at the forefront of the fight against Islamic terrorism in West Africa. He assured Africa that “development and security” will be top of his agenda as chief of the continental bloc.
The Chadian replaces outgoing leader South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who became the first female to lead the bloc of 54 states, she did not seek a second term in office after completing her four-year stint.
