African leaders elect Djibouti’s foreign minister as new leader of the African Union Commission

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

African leaders on Saturday elected Djibouti’s foreign minister to become the next leader of the commission than runs the continent-wide African Union.

Mahmoud Ali Youssouf defeated Raila Odinga, a former prime minister of Kenya, and Richard Randriamandrato, an ex-foreign minister of Madagascar, in a vote at the AU summit in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

The AU has 55 member states. Presidents or heads of government pick the commission’s leader, who is effectively the chief executive of the Addis Ababa-based secretariat running the AU.

Youssouf, who will serve a four-year term, replaces Moussa Faki of Chad, who has held the post since 2017.

The result is a blow for the high-profile Odinga, who sought support among allies at home and abroad.

The 80-year-old Odinga has sought Kenya’s presidency five times over three decades, and the AU post would have been his last foray in public affairs. His long and colorful career in local politics peaked with his rise to the position of prime minister in 2008 after tense negotiations to end postelection violence in which at least 1,000 people were killed in Kenya.