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Former Chadian Prime Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat won a second term as head of the African Union’s executive body on Saturday at the opening of a two-day virtual summit expected to focus on the continent’s response to the pandemic.
Faki, who ran unopposed, was supported by 51 of 55 member states in the secret ballot, authorities said.
“Deeply honored by the overwhelming and historic vote of confidence,” Faki tweeted. He also congratulated Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, on her election as their deputy.
The AU summit comes almost exactly one year after Egypt recorded the first coronavirus case in Africa, sparking widespread fears that the weak health systems of member states would be quickly overwhelmed.
But despite early predictions of the end of the world, the continent has been less affected than other regions so far, recording 3.5 percent of virus cases and 4 percent of deaths worldwide, according to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, many African countries are battling harmful second waves as they struggle to obtain sufficient doses of vaccine.
African leaders have spoken out against the hoarding of vaccines by rich countries at the expense of the poorest.
“There is vaccine nationalism on the rise, with other rich countries jumping the queue, some even preordering more than they need,” Faki said in an interview posted on the AU website ahead of the summit.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was due to deliver an update on the response to the pandemic during the closed portion of the summit on Saturday.
In a previous speech, he called for “a new injection of resources” from the International Monetary Fund to “correct the evident inequality in fiscal stimulus measures between advanced economies and the rest of the world.”
Elections and crisis
Meanwhile, Nigerian Bankole Adeoye was the frontrunner to head the AU’s newly merged political affairs and peace departments, diplomats said, though AU rules dividing top posts among Africa’s subregions could lead to a surprising result.
Whoever wins could play a critical role, together with Faki, in addressing the crises the AU is accused of.
There are multiple internal conflicts that the AU has done little to resolve.
Its Peace and Security Council has been unable to hold meetings on a conflict between government forces and Anglophone separatists in Cameroon, for example, as well as on the growing Islamist militancy in Mozambique.
A three-month conflict in the AU host country Ethiopia, pitting the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed against the former ruling party of the northern region of Tigray, has proved especially delicate.
Abiy has rejected calls by senior AU envoys for talks with the Tigrayan leaders, sticking to his line that the conflict is a limited “law and order” operation.
Congo in charge
This weekend’s summit comes as the new president of the United States, Joe Biden, promises to re-engage with multilateral institutions such as the African Union.
In a video message posted on Friday, Biden said his administration will engage in “sustained diplomacy, in relation to the African Union, to address the conflicts that are claiming lives across the African continent.”
The summit marks the official beginning of the one-year presidency of the AU of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi. By TONY KARUMBA (AFP / Archive) The summit also marks the official beginning of the one-year presidency of the AU for Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, who succeeds Ramaphosa.
Addressing other heads of state and government on Saturday, Tshisekedi vowed to make the AU more relevant by taking it “out of the meeting rooms.”
Tshisekedi has outlined an ambitious agenda that includes responding to climate change, combating sexual violence, promoting the African Continental Free Trade Area, and accelerating his own country’s Grand Inga Hydroelectric Project, which the AU considers a major source of electricity for the continent. .
But Tshisekedi is also embroiled in a power struggle at home with supporters of former DRC president Joseph Kabila.
Mohamed Diatta, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said Tshisekedi is “really trying to consolidate power at home, but it’s not an easy task.”
“He will probably still be busy with that because what he has created at home is essentially a very fragile and flexible governing coalition,” Diatta told AFP.
