The second day of the African Union Summit concluded on Thursday in Addis Ababa, with the Executive Council wrapping up its proceedings late into the evening. Foreign ministers, comprising the Council, finalized the appointment of new members to the organization’s Peace and Security Council.
Thursday’s events were marked by confusion within the Executive Council. Initially scheduled for a vote to renew 10 out of the 15 members of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, rumors circulated throughout the day about the postponement of the vote. Several diplomats unofficially confirmed that the future appointees would be designated during the conference of Heads of State and Government over the weekend.
Ultimately, the vote took place well after nightfall. The ten new members are Egypt for the North region, Equatorial Guinea and the DRC for the Central region, Angola and Botswana for the South, Tanzania and Uganda for the East, and finally Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, and The Gambia for the West.
While topics such as the implementation of the Continental Free Trade Area and the AU’s recent accession to the G20 were debated in plenary sessions, pressing issues of the moment, such as the war in Sudan, violence at the DRC-Rwanda border, the withdrawal of ECOWAS from the ECOWAS Monetary Zone, or the political crisis in Senegal, were discussed confidentially in adjacent rooms. Several other agendas were deliberated upon in anticipation of the Conference of Heads of State and Government, which commences on Saturday.