African Union Elections 2025 and the Servility of the Current African Leadership

The African

Union (AU) elections for the new Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) were concluded on February 15, 2025, when Mahmoud Ali Youssouf from Djibouti was elected. This election occurred in the context of the 38th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly (Heads of State and Government Session) which had convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 15-16 February 2025. The other two candidates for the position of Chairperson were the former Prime Minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga, and Richard Randriamandrato, former finance Minister of Madagascar. Under the rules of the African Union for a rotating Chairperson, it was East Africa’s turn to fill the position. Kenya’s candidate, Raila Odinga, was unsuccessful despite leading in initial rounds. The Kenyan government had mounted a vigorous campaign for this position, but the duplicitous role of Kenya in African politics ensured that Kenya did not gain the seat. Instead, the African leaders selected a minister from a country that hosts at least 8 foreign military bases in the Horn of Africa. Youssouf secured 33 votes in the final round, marking the consolidation of the military and diplomatic place of Djibouti as a launch pad for imperial mischief in Africa.

In a period of global insecurity with all major powers seeking relations with Africa, the intensity of the campaigns of the Kenyan government on one side and the government of France and the United Arab Emirates on the other side was one indication of the importance of Africa and the African Union in international politics. The African Union became a permanent member of the G20 in September 2023. This was a significant step in recognizing the importance of Africa's role in global economic discussions. More significantly, after the declared plans for the African currency and the African Central Bank, the position of the imperial forces was to pay close attention to the leadership of the African Union. 

The energetic activities of France to secure the position for Mahmoud Ali Youssouf was reminiscent of the intense campaign of France to place Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad as the head of the AU for two four-year terms 2017-2025. Yet, in these 8 years France and its military forces have been removed from the AES states, removed from Senegal, with supplicant collaborators such as Cote d'Ivoire and Chad requesting French troops to leave. Western Think Tanks and commentators had been waxing about the eight priorities of the AU to bring Peace and Security to Africa.  Highlighting the challenges for peace in flashpoints of struggle such as the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Great Lakes region, Ethiopia, Libya, Somalia, Mozambique and the Cameroon, in the main, commentaries steer very far from how the current struggles against genocidal violence in Palestine affected the AU elections and will affect the political process in Egypt, Morocco and Sudan.  There is silence in the western media on the activism of Morocco in seeking to replicate the Israeli military policies of illegal occupation and forced displacement of the Saharawi peoples. After 8 years of Faki and France, Morocco has now been emboldened to claim leadership within the Pan African spaces laundering funds from the Amadeus Foundation to give legitimacy for its anti-African activities.

In this commentary, I seek to reflect on the political context that brought Djibouti to the leadership of the AU and the humiliation of the Kenyan political class in their expensive rush to occupy the AU position. Kenya had positioned itself to be a loyal servant of external forces when it sent police forces to Haiti and signed on to be a non-NATO ally of the US military. I will take the reader through the votes, the different rounds of the elections and the meaning of these elections for Global Africa in a moment of the rise of white supremacist governments and fascist leadership in the United States and Europe. The conclusion will seek to highlight the reality that the youth of Africa and the progressive forces are not awaiting the leadership to forge the path for building alternatives to the dollar and strengthening the base for social and economic reconstruction. 

 Djibouti as a military base for empire in Africa.

“The Horn of Africa, consisting of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia, is an area of great geopolitical and commercial importance. Djibouti is a small nation of 1 million inhabitants approximately and situated strategically on the northeast coast of the HoA, encompassing an area of 23,200 square kilometers. Due to the proximity to the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the resource-rich Arabian Peninsula, and the strategic shipping route of the Gulf of Aden, Djibouti has emerged as the hub of rivalry between foreign nations to build airstrips, training camps, ports, bases, and logistics centers, as well as naval forces, attracting international funds and investments.”

This is how a European University described the small territory of Djibouti which is inhabited by Somali speaking Africans. At the time of the imperial partitioning of Africa in 1884, this part of Africa had been occupied by France who was then cooperating with Britain in the construction and maintenance of the Suez Canal to have access to the Red Sea and the routes to India. Since that time, Djibouti has been acting as a military base for imperial forces. At present Djibouti hosts at least 8 military bases in the Horn of Africa on the Red Sea. These are:

1.   The Base Aérienne 188 or ‘Camp de l’Unité,’ commonly known as the naval base of Héron, was established as one of France’s largest military bases abroad.
2. Japan- Erected in 2011, this facility is Japan’s first full-scale, long-term overseas base since World War II.
3. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Saudi Arabia base to fight the Houhis.
4. United States_ In 2002, Djibouti became home to the only permanent US military base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier
5. People’s Republic of China (PRC)- the Chinese have undertaken initiatives to win support from the local population, such as the construction of the $580 million Doraleh Multipurpose Port, and the $4 billion Addis-Ababa-Djibouti railway, the first modern electrified railway line in East Africa, which alleviates Ethiopia’s heavy reliance on Djibouti for trade.
6. Italy established in 2013 the National Support Military Base (Base Militare Nazionale di Supporto ‘Amedeo Guillet’), which hosts 300 active personnel and serves anti-piracy purposes. … Germany (temporarily) and Spain (permanently) have stationed their military troops in the French base of Héron in Djibouti to protect their merchant ships from terrorist threats. These forces have also participated in European Union missions, such as Operation Atalanta and Operation Enduring Freedom.
7. South Korea also utilizes Djibouti commercial port to launch their naval operatives in the region and
8. India has an agreement allowing it to operate on American, French, and Japanese bases in the country.

Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Djibouti since 2005. He has been an influential figure in negotiating the emplacement of external military bases in Africa so that Djibouti has become known as the ‘tiny valuable nation hosting the world’s military giants.’ The masters of the universe mobilized those governments in Africa who were still aligned with France (so called Francophone countries) to oppose Raila Odinga. In this quest, those states allied with Israel and the United States such as Egypt, Qatar, Morocco, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia led in the mobilization of resources to ensure that Mahmoud Ali Youssouf became the AU Chairperson. As a consolation prize H.E. Selma Malika Haddadi from Algeria was installed as the Deputy Chairperson of the AU. Algeria is one of the top holders of foreign exchange and gold reserves who has been afraid to deploy these reserves for the full economic transformation of the society.

Why the position of AU Chairperson is important

In the aftermath of the defeat of Apartheid, with the transition from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the AU there had been high expectations for the push for the deeper integration of African economies. Since its inception in 2002, the impact of the AUC Chairperson has varied widely, reflecting the intensity of the anti-imperial struggles in Africa with African states seeking external support to maintain their kleptocratic rule. These same leaders who send out more than $50 billion USD per year in illicit capital flight, will not even honor their commitments to fund the AU Commission. These struggles inside the AU came to a head whenthe former President of Libya took seriously the plans for the full integration of African peoples and resources. In my study on Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya: Lessons for Africa in the forging of African Unity, I highlight how African intellectuals and activists had joined in the call for strengthening new bases for economic cooperation in Africa.

Alpha Oumar Konaré, who served as the President of Mali from 1992 to 2002, became the Chairperson of the African Union from 2003 to 2008 following the swift drafting and ratification of the Constitutive Act of the African Union. It was during his time as the Chairperson when the AU held its meeting in Ghana in 2007 and pushed for a single African currency, the African Monetary Fund, and an African Central Bank. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem and those Pan African Activists from the African Union’s Economic, Social, and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) had taken the intellectual lead in drawing up strategy papers for continental union and the freedom of movement of the peoples of Africa. Muamar Gaddafi left that meeting committed to these goals and had dedicated the foreign reserves of Libya toward this project. France, Britain and NATO orchestrated the destruction of Libya and the assassination of Gaddafi to short circuit the plans for the African currency. Western ‘donors’ co-opted the more important ECOSOCC personnel so that there is now a deafening silence on the call for one currency and one central bank in Africa.

Jean Ping of Gabon became the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on February 1, 2008. His feeble leadership in the face of the NATO destruction led most African governments to remove him after four years. During his four-year tenure, Jean Ping and his minions crippled the AU commission, sidelined ECOSOCC and the UNECA at a moment when the peoples of Africa wanted a more vigorous pushback against the NATO invasion. Because of the subservience of Jean Ping in the face of French imperialism, the South Africans pushed for his removal. Their candidate, Nkosazana Dlamin-Zuma, was selected as Chairperson in 2012.  After the Libyan catastrophe, the struggle for Nkosazana Dlamin-Zuma, the first woman to become chairperson, was one of the most protracted with a nine-month battle involving four balloting sessions. It was during the tenure of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma when the African Union promoted Agenda 2063 for the full unification of Africa.

France worked vigorously to mobilize pliant leaders behind the destabilization of West Africa with Operation Serval in Mali and Operation Barkhane.  To provide diplomatic cover for the destruction in West Africa, French operatives intervened aggressively in the 2017 AU elections to elevate Chadian Foreign Minister, Moussa Faki Mahamat, as the Chairperson of the AU. Moussa Faki weakened the collective response of Africa to the transition process in Sudan by inviting the President of Egypt to be the mediator between the people of the Sudan and the deposed military forces. Faki knew well that Egypt would work to extend the military powers of the factions of Sudan, who had militarized the state. Sudan is now reaping the results of the Faki / Sisi intervention in Sudan.

To sustain the CFA as a dominant currency, France, as a lesser power, needed to assert control over Africa. France wreaked havoc across Africa until the peoples of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger decided to call for the removal of French military forces from their territory. Moussa Faki remained weak in the face of vaccine apartheid during the COVID pandemic. Faki had been the foreign minister of Chadian President Idriss Deby, who reportedly died while visiting front-line troops in 2021. A military council led by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby, took control, dissolving the parliament and the constitution.  This move was controversial, as Chadian law stipulated that the speaker of parliament should assume power in the event of the president's death. Future research will reveal exactly what happened to Moussa Faki when he went to Chad as the Chairperson of the AU to call for General Mahamat Idriss Déby to respect the constitution of Chad. What we do know is that, in Mali, a military council that took power by unconstitutional means was not recognized by the AU, but Chad remained a member of the AU highlighting the double standards of the African Union.

The 2025 elections 

The decision of Kenya to compete for the position of Chairperson was taken at the highest level of Kenyan society so that the different sections of the Kenyan comprador classes could close ranks in the face of the determined struggles of the Kenyan youth. Raila Odinga had been the candidate for President on four occasions since 2007 (in 2007, 2013, 2017, and 2022).  In 2024 the uprisings of the Kenyan youth and workers in what was called the Gen Z rebellion shook the foundations of the rule of the exploiting classes. It was amid these social struggles when Raila Odinga declared that he would support William Ruto and compete for the position of Chairperson of the AU. The Kenyan President, William Ruto readily agreed to this candidacy if Raila Odinga supported the continuing role of Kenya as a beachhead for capital flight from Africa. President Ruto had represented himself as a loyal ally of the United States by sending police forces to support the US mission of subverting efforts for peace and reconstruction in Haiti. Kenya worked with the US to orchestrate the Kenya-United States Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) which was launched in July 2022.

Despite aggressive lobbying by President William Ruto, including diplomatic tours across Africa, Raila’s bid failed to secure unanimous backing from East African nations.

The Election Rounds

Kenya’s candidate, Raila Odinga, was unsuccessful despite leading in the initial rounds.

The election process involved several rounds of voting:

- First round: Odinga 20 votes, Youssouf 18 votes, Madagascar’s Richard

Randriamandrato 10 votes, one abstention.

- Second round: Odinga 22 votes, Youssouf 19 votes, Randriamandrato 7 votes, one

abstention.

- Third round: Youssouf 23 votes, Odinga 20 votes, Randriamandrato 5 votes, one

abstention (Randriamandrato eliminated).

- Fourth round: Youssouf 25 votes, Odinga 21 votes, one spoiled vote, one

abstention.

- Fifth round: Youssouf 26 votes, Odinga 21 votes, one abstention.

- Sixth round: Youssouf 26 votes, Odinga 22 votes, one abstention (Odinga eliminated/withdrew).

- Seventh round: Youssouf secured 33 votes, reaching the required two-thirds

majority.

The article from Nyanza Daily lists the 22 African countries that supported Raila Odinga in the African Union Commission (AUC) elections in Ethiopia. Despite Raila dropping out in the sixth round of voting, these countries backed his candidacy:

1. Eswatini
2. Zimbabwe
3. Gambia
4. Malawi
5. Congo Brazzaville
6. Zambia
7. South Africa
8. Botswana
9. Liberia
10. Nigeria
11. Sierra Leone
12. Burundi
13. Kenya
14. Rwanda
15. Uganda
16. Tanzania
17. South Sudan
18. Equatorial Guinea
19. Central African Republic
20. Benin
21. Mozambique

The Djibouti candidate ultimately won the chairmanship after securing two-thirds of the votes in the seventh round.

Lessons of Kenyan Treachery in Africa

There was treachery and duplicity all around by the leaders of Africa. In public, leaders from Rwanda and Uganda supported the Kenyan candidate and even voted for the candidate, but in their diplomatic work had lobbied aggressively against the candidature of Raila Odinga. Numerous press reports commented on the duplicity and double-dealing of Kenya in dealing with the peoples of Africa. One author who wrote on How Raila Odinga fell: Web of factors that cost Kenya top African Union job has documented for history the role of Kenya in serving imperialism in the cases of Haiti, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Palestine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Senegal, Comoros and the Alliance of Sahelian States. It will require a more in-depth coverage to fully list the double dealing of the Kenyan leadership in its so-called arbitration in Africa.

Two examples stand out. These are the examples of Kenya’s hosting of the Sudan Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Sudan and the relationship of Kenya to the M23 forces fighting against the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In both cases the government of Kenya undermined efforts towards peace and demilitarization. Most recently, Ruto and the Kenyan leadership supported UAE interests in Sudan, giving legitimacy to the RSF General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), forces at a moment when the entire peace-loving community charged the RSF with genocidal acts in Sudan. Similarly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the alliance between Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda made a mockery of the so-called mediation efforts that were supposed to be carried out by the East African Community. It will take volumes of books and dissertations to fully document the treachery of Kenya in the plunder of the resources of Congo. Numerous UN reports documented the role of Rwanda and the M23 in the plunder of resources of the DRC. UN figures documented that M23 had generated nearly $800 million in taxes on the production, trade, and transport related to the coltan mines around Rubaya, since April 2024. The same UN sources have documented the reality that that Rwandan mineral export revenue has doubled over the last two years and now exceeds $1 billion. This growth includes a jump in gold exports despite Rwanda not being a major gold producer. The EU signed a memorandum of understanding with Rwanda in February 2024 to strengthen the EU-Rwanda critical mineral supply chains. The EU has also invested more than €900 million in Rwanda as part of the EU Global Gateway program.

Kenya has been an important transit point for the plunder while feigning as a mediator.

The momentum has gone past the AU and its leadership.

It is noteworthy that Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, Gabon and Sudan were not part of the 2025 AU elections. Earlier we drew attention to how Chad with the military in control remained within the AU while these other countries were suspended. Of the suspended countries, the three countries that have formed the Alliance of Sahelian States, have turned a corner in Africa where ECOWAS and the African Union will have to work hard to meet the new standards of anti-imperialist resistance. French Generals and President Macron of France have made disparaging remarks about the AES while plotting to reverse the trend of African independence in West Africa. Macron insulted Africans saying, ‘None of them would have a sovereign state had French troops not been deployed in this region’. In response to this blatant falsehood, the governments of Mali and Burkina Faso have presented evidence to the United Nations to expose how France was funding and providing logistics support for those labeled as terrorists. Nigerians are also awaiting the full evidence from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) of how France worked with negative elements in Nigeria to keep Boko Haram afloat.

The Senegalese people upped the ante in their intervention to register another firm blow against French economic, military and cultural domination. After reminding the world of the Thiaroye massacre, 80 years ago, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko of Senegal has not been shy about exposing France for its long history of what he calls the ‘destabilisation of African countries’. With every exposure of France, there is more pressure on Algeria and Egypt as their continued support for France and the United States in Africa is brought out in the open. The fascist turn in Europe and North America has brought the political issues in Africa to a new stage. Starting with the issues of genocide and the illegal occupation of Palestine, the political leaders across Africa have been exposed in their collaboration with the Zionist entity, especially their intelligence and security cooperation in the use of Pegasus technology. Even the South African leadership which had been pushed by the anti-apartheid traditions of the society to take the legal lead against Israeli apartheid is now faced with a choice on where to go in the politics of Africa. In the promotion of Global white supremacy, the Donald Trump administration, including advisers such as Elon Musk, have argued that the proposed policies of land redistribution discriminate against white South Africans. 

The Trump administration issued an executive order in February 2025, cutting off ‘aid’ to South Africa and offering to resettle white South Africans whom he described as victims of unjust racial discrimination. For good measure, Senator Ted Cruz has promised Africa that, “that America’s policy towards Africa is focused on advancing American national security interests across the continent, with an emphasis on countering China’s efforts to undermine those interests and conduct malign activities.” The USA with AFRICOM intends to make Africa a battleground. This is a real test for the Peace and Security Committee of the African Union.

These acts by the US government, especially the freezing of the work of the USAID, should be a wake-up call to a government like that of South Africa to turn to local resources for economic reconstruction. The Thabo Mbeki Commission on illicit Capital flight from Africa has presented the information on how much money is flowing out of Africa. South Africa has more than a trillion Rands in reserves. Far from lamenting the freezing of the work of USAID, progressive Africans must turn this crisis into an opportunity to focus minds on the urgent need to start the journey towards ending this ‘aid dependency.’ Undoubtedly there were aspects of the international assistance that provided a backstop to societies with issues such as HIV,AIDS and malaria, but the Treatment Action Campaign has demonstrated that it is grassroots activism and clear political leadership that will bring healthcare to Africa.

In the same summit of early February the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley made a passionate call for the AU to support the reparative claims of Global Africa. Mottley was able to get the 38th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly State to support a special summit on reparations between the African Union (AU) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to take place on September 7, 2025. Motley, who is herself campaigning to become the Secretary General of the United Nations, has misplaced her energies by focusing on African leaders to advance the calls for reparations. Many of these leaders are complicit in the current plunder of resources and are afraid of engaging the issues of reparative justice. During the period of the OAU, there had been a vigorous commission dealing with reparations and reparative justice. Imperialism remains afraid of the question of reparative justice, just as they are afraid of the calls to build a united Africa. The current political leaders are an obstacle to that unity. Those involved in following the ideas of Franz Fanon and Patrice Lumumba need to emerge at all levels in Global Africa.

ENDNOTES

 ¹ https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/african-union-regional-bodies/b205-eight-priorities-african-union-2025

 ² https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/african-union-regional-bodies/b205-eight-priorities-african-union-2025

³ https://www.unav.edu/web/global-affairs/djibouti-the-tiny-valuable-nation-hosting-the-world-s-military-giants

⁴ https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24/373/37/pdf/n2437337.pdf

⁵ https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-rebel-gains-boost-illicit-mineral-trade-through-rwanda-analysts-say-2025-01-28

⁶ Basillioh Rukanga, ‘Macron accused of 'contempt' over Africa remarks’, BBC News, 7 January 2025 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4xej8n7wxo

⁷ Pegasus is a sophisticated spyware developed by the Israeli company NSO Group. It is designed to infiltrate smartphones and extract a wide range of data, including messages, calls, photos, and location information. It can even activate the phone's camera and microphone without the owner's knowledge.Israel's Trojan Horse: How Ghana's Pegasus Purchase Ignites Privacy Concerns Across Africa - Unite.AI

Horace G Campbell is a peace and social justice activist. He is also Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University and Chairperson of the Global