The African Union, (AU), (Arabic: الاتحاد الأفريقي), (French: Union africaine), (Portuguese: União Africana), (Spanish: Unión Africana), (Swahili: Umoja wa Afrika), is a pan-african bloc of organizations meant to promote continental integration. The African Union's membership consists of all African states. Founded on the 26th of May 2001, being previously planned in the Sirte Declaration calling for its future creation. The African Union was official established on the 9th of July 2009, in Durban South Africa, with the base of operations being held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, officially replacing the OAU (Organization of African Unity).
Administration
Assembly of the African Union
The Assembly of the African Union (African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government (AU-AHSG), is the overseeing, and according to AU itself the ''supreme policy and decision-making organ.'' It encompasses all Member State Heads of State and Government. The Assembly settles the AU's policies, establishes its priorities, and also adopts the organization's annual initiative and monitors the appliance of its polices and decision makes. According to the African Union the Assembly, ''Elects the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), Appoints the AUC Commissioners and determines their functions and terms of office, Admits new members to the AU, Adopts the AU budget, Adopts the AU budget, Amends the Constitutive Act in conformity with the laid down procedures, Interprets the Constitutive Act, Approves the structure, functions and regulations of the AU Commission, Determines the structure, functions, powers, composition and organization of the Executive Council. The Assembly can in fact create any committee, ''working group'', or commissions it deems necessary. It can as well delegate its powers and functions to other Union organs, as fits.
Chairperson of the African Union
The Chairperson of the African Union is selected by the Assembly following confirmations with Member States. The office of the Chair of the African Union is held for a period for one year by a Head of State or Government. The current Chairperson of the African Union is H.E. President Macky Sall of Republic of Senegal
Chairs of Assembly of the African Union in order.
Feb 2023 to Present - Azali Assoumani, Comoros
Feb 2022 to Feb 2023 - Macky Sall, Republic of Senegal
Feb 2021 to Feb 2022 - Felix Antoine Tshisekedi, Democratic Republic of Congo
Feb 2020 to Feb 2021 - Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa
Feb 2019 to Feb 2020 - Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt
Jan 2018 to Feb 2019 - Paul Kagame, Rwanda
Jan 2017 to Jan 2018 - Alpha Conde, Guinea
Jan 2016 to Jan 2017 - Idriss Déby, Chad
Jan 2015 to Jan 2016 - Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
Jan 2014 to Jan 2015 - Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritania
Jan 2013 to Jan 2014 - Hailemariam Dessalegn, Ethiopia
Jan 2012 to Jan 2013 - Thomas Yayi Boni, Benin
Jan 2011 to Jan 2012 - Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Equatorial Guinea
Jan 2010 to Jan 2011 - Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi
Feb 2009 to Jan 2010 - Muammar Gaddafi, Libya
Jan 2008 to Jan 2009 - Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, UR of Tanzania
Jan 2007 to Jan 2008 - John Kufuor, Ghana
Jan 2006 to Jan 2007 - Dénis Sassou N’Guesso, Congo
July 2004 to Dec 2005 - Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria
July 2003 to July 2004 - Joaquim Alberto Chissano, Mozambique
July 2002 to July 2003 - Thabo Mbeki, South Africa (edited)