Djibouti’s Mahamoud Ali Youssouf sets out stall to head AU Commission

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When the Assembly of Heads of State of the African Union meet in February 2025 to choose the next chairperson for the African Union Commission, one of the choices before them will be Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, minister of foreign affairs of Djibouti and career diplomat. The new chair will be expected to guide the ship of the AU through waters that have perhaps never been as choppy.

And yet, this is a continent that is re-discovering its strength and potential and could, with the right leadership and strategy, arrive at a destination that has eluded it since de-colonisation – an industralised, peaceful and assertive continent that has the respect of its peers.

Born in 1965 and educated in his home country Youssouf went on to study in France, the UK – business management at the University of Liverpool – Canada, and Belgium at the Université libre de Bruxelles.

He began his diplomatic career in the 1990s, heading the foreign ministry’s Arab Affairs Department. He later served as Djibouti’s ambassador to Egypt and as minister-delegate for international cooperation before becoming minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation in 2005.

Unsurprisingly for someone with his experience, he has no illusions about the in-tray that he could potentially inherit. Africa is behind on many of the milestones it.