AU summit seeks to raise Africa’s voice on global stage
The African Union’s annual summit will open on Saturday against the backdrop of coups in Gabon and Niger and a political crisis in Senegal, posing challenges for the bloc as it seeks to amplify its international presence. Set up more than two decades ago, the 55-member bloc has long been criticised for being ineffectual and for taking little decisive action in the face of numerous power grabs.
Gabon and Niger will be absent from the meeting in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, following their suspension over coups last year. They will join Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina Faso, which are also barred from the summit.
The coups and the crisis in Senegal, which has been in turmoil since President Macky Sall pushed back this month’s elections at the last minute, will likely dominate the agenda, said analyst Nina Wilen. “I doubt that there will be any strong decisions,” said Wilen, director of the Africa programme at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations think tank in Brussels.
The organization has so far had “very little influence on countries that have suffered recent coups”, she said, adding that member states did not want to set precedents that could clash with their own interests. Some 19 presidential or general elections are scheduled on the continent in 2024, portending more challenges for the AU.
The bloc has managed to avoid a crisis by defusing tensions ahead of the summit over the one-year rotating AU chairmanship, currently held by Comoros President Azali Assoumani. The succession had long been blocked by the dispute between Morocco and Algeria, heavyweights of the North African region to whom the post falls this year.
After months of intense negotiations, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani is expected to take over the chairmanship. — AFP