Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, presented the main priorities of the new leadership at his first official press briefing on 12 May 2025, stressing the importance of promoting peace and security, fostering continental integration and mobilising national resources to finance Africa’s development.
Highlighting Africa’s complex peace and security challenges, the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, on 12 May 2025 in Addis Ababa, outlined the initiatives underway to find lasting solutions to the security situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, peace and stability in Somalia, escalating tensions in South Sudan, and the continuing conflict in Sudan. For the leader, it is more than necessary to review the institution’s security architecture in order to prevent and resolve conflicts.
“We are in the process of reviewing our peace and security architecture, and in doing so we face a number of challenges. One of them is the very conceptualisation of peace and security. We are considering reforms with member countries via our Department of Political and Security Affairs to achieve this peace. We note with regret that the decisions of this body often remain ink on paper, and this must change. Another area of interest to us is the African Standby Force. This continental early warning system is a unit that is supposed to be dedicated to conflict prevention 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We need to review the way this unit operates, because prevention is the key to avoiding crises.”
Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, President of the AUC – Djibouti
Mahmoud Ali Youssouf also indicated that the priorities of his leadership during his four-year term are aligned with the urgent need to accelerate the implementation of the key aspirations of the second ten-year plan of Agenda 2063, the continental bloc’s 50-year development plan. He also emphasised the urgent need to make Africa’s role in global trade a key priority of his leadership, expressing the AU’s ambition to leverage the Group of 20 (G20) mechanism as a crucial platform for enhancing the continent’s role in global trade.
“Adopted in 2023, Agenda 2063 will enable us to achieve the goal of a peaceful, prosperous and integrated Africa by 2063. This will not happen overnight. It will take time. We know that the results of the first implementation plan were not very satisfactory. The figures we have seen in the report show an implementation rate of 37%. It is therefore up to the new commission to improve this level of execution and implementation of the second ten-year plan. Everything has been adopted for 2024. One of these flagship programmes, of which there are 15, is to put an end to the use of firearms by 2030, which is one of our main priorities.”
Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, President of the AUC – Djibouti
At the heart of the reform programme announced is the AU’s financial autonomy by reducing its dependence on external funding through the exploration of innovative financing mechanisms. The AU has, for example, received €600 million from the European Union between 2022 and 2024 for peacekeeping aid.
“Reforms are also on the financial aspect. With the changing international geopolitics, the orientation we would like to who to give to the action when it comes to mobilizing financial resources to be to the organization is first and foremost rely on know our domestic resources, then continue to engage new partners so that we can mobilize exposes for development, for peace and security.”
Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, President of the AUC – Djibouti
In addition to strengthening the administrative and financial management of the AU Commission in order to establish a culture of efficiency, transparency and accountability at all levels, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has pledged to promote the principles of pan-Africanism and African unity.
