View from Kigali International Convention Centre, where the 2016 AU Summit was held. The question of AU financing has been a dead end for many ambitious continental plans. (Photo/ Flickr/ UN Photo/ Rick Bajornas)

As New AU Chair Mahamat Takes Office: The African Union’s Financing Headache, In Two Charts

Right from its inception, the AU has faced problems of member states not paying their dues on time; sanctions should kick in after a country has defaulted two years in a row


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The ruins of a cell at Camp Boiro in Conakry, Guinea, where former secretary-general of the OAU Diallo Telli met his death. (Photo/ RFI)

After The AU Commission Chair Dust-Up: It Used To Be One Of Africa’s Most Dangerous Jobs

By virtue of the fact that the position was an international one that might require the holder to be at odds with the domestic politics of ones home country, several former secretaries-general met a depressing end.


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Amina Mohamed, Kenya's foreign affairs minister in 2013. (Photo/WTO/Studio Casagrande)

Kenya’s Amina Complains of ‘Tribalism’ At The AU, But Francophone ‘Dominance’ Goes Down To Africa’s Borders

Of the 12 former chairs of the AU commission (and its predecessor, the OAU), seven have been from Francophone countries. And when examined on a regional basis, six have been from West Africa.