In January, the African Union elected Chad’s Moussa Faki Mahamat along with 6 other commissioners to lead the continental body over the next four years. Mahamat, until then Chad’s Foreign Minister, beat Kenya’s Amina Mohamed, Senegal’s Abudoulaye Bathily and two others to the position of AU Commission chair, replacing South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who did not seek a second term after serving her first 4-year term. The AU commission is the continental body’s governing organ.
As its immediate task, the Commission will have to adopt recommendations by the President Paul Kagame–led team that was tasked with coming up with proposals to reform the AU and wean it off aid dependency at the 27th AU Summit held in Kigali last year. The team includes former African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka, former head of the Economic Commission for Africa Carlos Lopez, Zimbabwean entrepreneur and businessman Strive Masiyiwa, among others.
