Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is the current chairman of the African Union (AU), elected at the 20th summit of the pan-African organization held in Addis Ababa in January 2013. The rotating presidency of the AU is renewed at each annual summits traditionally convened in January in Addis Ababa. Hailemariam Desalegn is part of the new African personalities formed the West on which to be reckoned.
The AU summit in January 2013 was dominated by the French military intervention in Mali. The situation in Mali, which was just last week the subject of an international donors’ conference in the Ethiopian capital, was also found on the menu of a meeting of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of AU.
The Council for Peace and Security of the AU decided to increase the size of the African force in Mali and urged the Security Council of the UN to provide logistical support “temporary” to accelerate its deployment. The AU has recognized the urgency to deploy troops on the ground. They do however come at dropper.
An important role for the African Union
Besides Mali, there many tensions everywhere in Africa, especially in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic. In addition, the stalled negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan. The two countries’ presidents, Omar al-Bashir and Salva Kiir, have already met earlier this year again in Addis Ababa to try to advance the resolution of disputes that plague their relationship a year and a half after the access to the independence of South Sudan.
Last week, Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed (62), hydraulics specialist who has been appointed the new Prime Minister of Djibouti by President Ismail Omar Guelleh (IOG). It is something rare in the elite Djibouti, native Souali in the Obock region, located in the north of the country, dominated afar. Holds a degree in hydraulics, it was shown in 1977 in the early days of independence by addressing water resources, a strategic sector for the state in the Horn of Africa.
Rigorous manager, he is not a novice in politics. He played in the 80 component of the technocratic People’s Rally for Progress was then the single party. Member of the Political Bureau of the RPP in the early 2000s, he became the first vice president in September 2012.
Appointed to head the government, forty days after legislative marked by the perilous rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, Djibouti’s new Prime Minister assures that the priority of his team will be fighting poverty, which is a fertile ground for the spread of Islamist propaganda.
This spectacular rise the Muslim Brotherhood (in Djibouti), financed by Qatar and seen positively by the Westerners, is Djibouti’s challenge for the years to come.
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Originally published on the French outlet Metamag, on April 19, 2013, titled “Africa in Motion: The crucial role of Addis Ababa“, authored by Michel Lhomme.
Note: Translated by Google translation service, then further edited for clarifications. (Daniel)
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