NAIROBI: Four senior African politicians — from Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar and Mauritius — have thrown their hat into the ring to take over the African Union’s top post.
The pan-continental body, which has 55 member states, will hold elections at its summit in February to choose a successor to Moussa Faki Mahamat as chair of the African Union Commission.
This year the role is reserved for a representative from East Africa to replace Faki, a veteran politician from Chad who has served since 2017.
The African Union issued a statement listing the four candidates as Mahamoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti, Raila Odinga of Kenya, Richard Randriamandrato of Madagascar and Anil Gayan of Mauritius.
“I am the only candidate capable of bridging the gap between the different regions of Africa, being French-speaking, but also English-speaking and Arabic-speaking,” said Djibouti’s Youssouf.
The 58-year-old has been foreign minister of the tiny but strategic Horn of Africa nation since 2005.
“My primary objective if I am elected is to silence the guns” on the continent, he told AFP in an interview last month.
His main rival is veteran Kenyan opposition leader Odinga, who at 79 has tried and failed five times to become president, most recently losing the 2022 election to William Ruto.
Odinga spent his early years in politics either in jail or in exile, fighting for democracy during the autocratic rule of president Daniel arap Moi.
“We are focused on bringing the seat home for Kenya and serving the African people,” Odinga said on X last month announcing his formal candidacy.
Gayan, 76, served as foreign minister of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius between 1983 and 1986 and again from 2000 to 2003 and has since held other posts including at the tourism and health ministries.
Randriamandrato was Madagascar’s foreign minister from March to October 2022 but was fired after voting at the United Nations to condemn Russia’s annexations of four Ukrainian regions.
Madagascar has followed a non-aligned position on the war in Ukraine.
The election is conducted by secret ballot, and the winner must secure a majority of two thirds of the vote among eligible member states.
The AU commission chair — effectively the body’s chief executive — serves a four-year term, renewable once.
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Four confirmed candidates for top African Union post
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Four confirmed candidates for top African Union post
UK’s Starmer urges ‘sleeping giant’ Europe to curb dependence on US
MUNICH, Germany: British leader Keir Starmer will tell the Munich Security Conference that Europe is “a sleeping giant” and must rely less on the United States for its defense, his office said Friday.
In a speech on Saturday at the summit, the UK prime minister will argue that the continent must shift from overdependence on the United States toward a more European NATO.
“I’m talking about a vision of European security and greater European autonomy that does not herald US withdrawal but answers the call for more burden sharing in full and remakes the ties that have served us so well,” Starmer is expected to say.
The gathering comes as European leaders remain concerned that a United States led by President Donald Trump can no longer be relied upon to be the guarantor of their security.
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has frequently criticized European countries for not sharing enough of the burden on common defense, and raised questions about the future of NATO.
European members of the transatlantic military alliance are rushing to build up their defenses in the face of an increasingly belligerent Moscow, whose war in Ukraine is set to enter its fifth year this month.
“As I see it — Europe is a sleeping giant. Our economies dwarf Russia’s, 10 times over,” Starmer will tell allies, according to excerpts released ahead of his address.
“We have huge defense capabilities. Yet, too often, all of this has added up to less than the sum of its parts,” he was to say, citing fragmented planning and procurement problems.
Late last year, talks on Britain joining the bloc’s new 150-billion-euro (£130 billion) rearmament fund broke down, reportedly because London baulked at the price for entry.
Downing Street said Starmer would use his speech to call for closer UK-EU defense cooperation.
“There is no British security without Europe, and no European security without Britain. That is the lesson of history — and it is today’s reality too,” Starmer was to say.
The UK government announced on Friday that Britain will spend more than £400 million this financial year on hypersonic and long-range weapons, including through joint projects with France, Germany and Italy.
Starmer, whose center-left Labour party is being squeezed on opposite ends of the political spectrum by the anti-immigrant Reform UK group and the more leftwing Greens, was to say leaders “must level with the public” about the defense costs they face.
He was due to hit out at “peddlers of easy answers on the extreme left and the extreme right,” according to the excerpts.
“The future they offer is one of division and then capitulation. The lamps would go out across Europe once again. But we will not let that happen,” Starmer was expected to say.
In a speech on Saturday at the summit, the UK prime minister will argue that the continent must shift from overdependence on the United States toward a more European NATO.
“I’m talking about a vision of European security and greater European autonomy that does not herald US withdrawal but answers the call for more burden sharing in full and remakes the ties that have served us so well,” Starmer is expected to say.
The gathering comes as European leaders remain concerned that a United States led by President Donald Trump can no longer be relied upon to be the guarantor of their security.
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has frequently criticized European countries for not sharing enough of the burden on common defense, and raised questions about the future of NATO.
European members of the transatlantic military alliance are rushing to build up their defenses in the face of an increasingly belligerent Moscow, whose war in Ukraine is set to enter its fifth year this month.
“As I see it — Europe is a sleeping giant. Our economies dwarf Russia’s, 10 times over,” Starmer will tell allies, according to excerpts released ahead of his address.
“We have huge defense capabilities. Yet, too often, all of this has added up to less than the sum of its parts,” he was to say, citing fragmented planning and procurement problems.
Late last year, talks on Britain joining the bloc’s new 150-billion-euro (£130 billion) rearmament fund broke down, reportedly because London baulked at the price for entry.
Downing Street said Starmer would use his speech to call for closer UK-EU defense cooperation.
“There is no British security without Europe, and no European security without Britain. That is the lesson of history — and it is today’s reality too,” Starmer was to say.
The UK government announced on Friday that Britain will spend more than £400 million this financial year on hypersonic and long-range weapons, including through joint projects with France, Germany and Italy.
Starmer, whose center-left Labour party is being squeezed on opposite ends of the political spectrum by the anti-immigrant Reform UK group and the more leftwing Greens, was to say leaders “must level with the public” about the defense costs they face.
He was due to hit out at “peddlers of easy answers on the extreme left and the extreme right,” according to the excerpts.
“The future they offer is one of division and then capitulation. The lamps would go out across Europe once again. But we will not let that happen,” Starmer was expected to say.
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