Angolan president Lourenco elected new AU chairman

The President of Angola Joao Lourenco has been elected as the new chairperson of the African Union Assembly for the year 2025.

The president of the largest Portuguese-speaking country in Africa has been confirmed during the ongoing 38th African Union Summit in Ethiopia Addis Ababa this Saturday, February 15, 2025.

Lourenço officially takes over from Mauritania’s Mohamed Ould Ghazouani as African Union Chairperson.

The AU chairperson is the ceremonial head of the African Union and is elected by the assembly of heads of state and governments for a rotational leadership of a one-year term.

The chairmanship rotates among the continent’s five regions in the order of East, North, Southern, Central, and West on a principle of equitable regional representation.

Among his roles as the incumbent includes chairing the biannual summit meetings of the assembly and representing the continent in various international forums such as G7 meetings, Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), Forum On China Africa Cooperation (FOCAF) and G20 summits that bring together heads of state or government from member countries to discuss key global issues.

The chair also assists in resolving crises on the continent as an elder statesman.

In 2023, Both Kenya and Comoros vied for the AU chairman role. President William Ruto later stepped down in favour of his counterpart.

Ruto’s steps down

In his acceptance speech, Assoumani thanked the heads of state from East Africa for endorsing him for the position.

“I want to my colleagues, brothers and sisters from the countries of East Africa for having supported my candidature for this noble function and more particularly my dear Brother, President William Ruto who had the elegance to withdraw the candidacy of his beautiful country, Kenya,” Assoumani said.

The Comoros head of state further commended Kenya’s growth following his invite to Kenya three months later for the Madaraka day celebrations.

“I thank Kenya for supporting the candidature of Comoros as chairperson of the African Union for 2023. Kenya has made tremendous progress since independence, I pay homage to the fathers of independence of Africa,” he said during an invite to Kenya for the Madaraka celebration of 2023.

“I am very happy that you accelerated your independence as a country and 60 years later Kenya is respected as a country that is capable of solving its own problems,” he added.