AU unveils full list of elected offiials at 38 summit
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The African Union has unveiled the full list of Commissioners elected during the 38th session of the African Union Summit.
Mahmoud Ali Youssouf (Djibouti, Eastern Region) was elected Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC).
He will be assisted by the Vice-Chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi (Algeria, Northern Region), for a four-year term, renewable once.
The two leaders were elected and sworn in during the 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government held on 15 and 16 February 2025.
The two elected officials received the required two-thirds majority of the votes of the 49 Member States eligible to vote. Six AU Member States are under sanctions and were not eligible to vote.
Mahmoud, 60, will succeed outgoing President Moussa Faki Mahamat (Chad, Central Region), who has served two consecutive terms since 2017.
Mahmoud is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Djibouti and previously served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), among other key roles.
He was competing against Raila Amolo Odinga, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya and Richard Randriamandrato, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Madagascar.
The Chairperson of the AUC is the chief executive, legal representative of the AU and the chief accounting officer of the Commission.
The Chairperson is elected by the Assembly for a term of four years, renewable once.
The functions of the Chairperson include, among others, overall responsibility for the administration and finances of the Commission; promotion and popularization of the objectives of the AU and improvement of its performance; consultation and coordination with key stakeholders such as Member States, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), development partners, among other stakeholders.
He is also responsible for the appointment and management of the staff of the Commission; the depositary of all treaties and legal instruments of the African Union and the Organization of African Unity.
Selma will succeed Dr. Monique Nsanzabaganwa (Rwanda, Eastern Region) who was elected in 2021, becoming the first female Vice President.
Aged 47, Selma is a career diplomat, currently Algerian Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
She is also a lawyer.
In accordance with the principle of gender rotation which stipulates that if the President of the Commission is a man, the Vice President is a woman and vice versa. Therefore, all male candidates running for the position of Vice President were disqualified after the election of Mahmoud as President, leaving ladies Latifah Akharbach (Morocco), Hanan Morsy (Egypt) and Najat Elhajjaji (Libya) as candidates competing with Selma Haddadi for the position of Vice President.
Libya, however, withdrew its candidate before the start of voting, leaving three female candidates in the race for the vice presidency.
The Vice-President shall assist the President in the exercise of his functions, in order to ensure the proper functioning of the Commission, and shall supervise the administrative and financial functions.
The Vice-President shall also chair the Commission in the absence of the President.
Northern Region served for two terms.
Amb. Amma Twum-Amoah (Ghana, Western region) elected as Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development (HHS) department. She is the former Ambassador of the Republic of Ghana to Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan and the Permanent Representative to the African Union. She previously served as the Director, Economic, Trade and Investment Bureau of Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and served as the Minister Plenipotentiary/Special Government Projects at the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C., U.S.A, among other senior positions.
She takes over from Amb. Minata Samate Cessouma (Burkina Faso, Western Region).
The elections for the Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Mining (ETTIM) and Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (ESTI) were postponed.
The incumbent Commissioners, namely H.E. Amb. Albert Muchanga and Prof. Mohammed Belhocine respectively, will continue to serve in their current positions until the elections are conducted.
Elections to the African Union Commission are governed by the Rules of Procedure of the AU Assembly and the Statutes of the Commission.
The Deputy Chairperson shall not be from the same region as the Chairperson of the Commission.
Gender equality is also taken into account in that if the Chairperson is a man, the Deputy Chairperson shall be a woman and vice versa.
Furthermore, the regions from which the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson hail are no longer eligible to run for the position of African Union Commissioner.
The election of the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson took place after the appointments of the Commissioners of the AU Commission at the 46th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on 12 February 2025. Commissioners are elected for a term of four years, renewable once. Four out of the six available Commissioner positions were elected.
Amb. Bankole Adeoye (Nigeria, Western Region) has been re-elected as Head of the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security (APPS).
Ambassador Adeoye assumed office as the African Union (AU) Commissioner for APPS in March 2021.
Prior to joining the AU, he was Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the AU and ECA, and Ambassador to Ethiopia and Djibouti.
He has also served as Chief of Staff to the Director General of AUDA-NEPAD; Director of Corporate Services and Coordinator, Partnerships and External Relations, as well as Director, International Organizations Department, Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Moses Vilakati (Eswatini, (Southern Region) was elected to head the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE).
He has served as a Minister in Eswatini in the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Previously, he served as Project Director at the Eswatini Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise, among other achievements.
He succeeds Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko (Angola, Southern Region) who served two terms at the AUC.
Ms Lerato Mataboge (South Africa, Southern Region) becomes the new Commissioner, heading the Infrastructure and Energy (I&E) Department.
Mataboge is an expert in global policy and trade and investment facilitation and is currently Deputy Director-General at the South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. Prior to this role, she founded and served as CEO of Trade Invest Africa.
She also sits on the Board of the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa (ECIC) as a non-executive director and is a member of the Finance and Investment Committee. She succeeds HE Amani Abou-Zeid (Egypt, Northern Region) who served two terms at the AUC.
Amb. Amma Twum-Amoah (Ghana, Western Region) was elected to head the Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development (HHS).
She is the former Ambassador of Ghana to Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan, and the Permanent Representative to the African Union.
Prior to this position, she served as Director of the Bureau of Economy, Trade and Investment in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of Ghana, and Minister Plenipotentiary/Special Government Projects at the Embassy of Ghana.
-0- PANA AO/RA 17Feb2025
