REUTERS-The African
Union is due to choose a new leader on Monday in a vote more likely to expose
differences over the International Criminal Court and other
issues than
reaffirm the continent's solidarity and common purpose.
In a clear
split, three of its four major regions – the south, the east and the largely
Francophone west – are supporting their own nominees to head the bloc, making
deadlock followed by horse-trading likely.
Leading
candidates to replace South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the first woman to
serve as the continent’s top diplomat, are Kenyan foreign minister Amina
Mohammed and Senegal’s Abdoulaye Bathily, analysts say.
In another
potentially divisive move, the 54 heads of state gathered in the Ethiopian
capital, Addis Ababa, will have to decide whether to approve the re-admission
of Morocco.
The North
African kingdom quit the AU’s predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity,
three decades ago amid a dispute over the body's recognition of Western Sahara,
most of which has been controlled by Morocco since 1976. However, King Mohammed
VI has been on a diplomatic charm offensive in the last year to try to win
Rabat’s readmission. Continental heavyweights Algeria and South Africa have
been backers of the Sahrawi Republic, the domestic political movements that
lays claim to the territory along the northern Sahara’s Atlantic seaboard.
Neither has said explicitly it will oppose Morocco's re-entry.
Preliminary
meetings have also been dominated by disputes over the International Criminal
Court (ICC), which countries such as South Africa and Kenya say is a tool of
Western imperialism that unfairly targets the continent. Conversely, Nigeria,
Botswana and other states say the Hague-based court is an important legal
backstop for countries whose domestic justice systems have been compromised by
civil conflict.
“You have all
these calls for unity but actually if you look at the AU now, it is more
divided than ever – over Morocco, the regional divisions and the ICC,” said
Liesl Louw-Vaudran, an AU expert at the Institute for Security Studies in
Pretoria. “It’s unprecedented.”
Dlamini-Zuma,
who is tipped as a replacement for her ex-husband, Jacob Zuma, at the helm of
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) this year, was due to end
her term in July last year but had to extend her time when the AU failed to
reach agreement on a successor.
Her election
4-1/2 years ago after intense lobbying by South Africa rankled many countries
because it breached an unwritten rule preventing major states holding the AU
chair.
During her
time in charge, the medical doctor has focused on reforming the AU’s
dysfunctional internal bureaucracy and drawing up a long-term for improving the
lives of Africa’s marginal citizens, especially women and children. However,
she has been criticized for failing to heal the rifts created by her election
and not doing more to prevent conflict in countries such as South Sudan, which
the United Nations says is tilting towards genocide.
REUTERS
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