AU Summit: Tshisekedi elected AU Chairperson for 2021

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo has been elected first Vice Chairperson of the African Union (AU) for 2020 and Chairperson for 2021, announced, lsmaïl Omar Guelleh, President of Djibouti and African Dean, on Sunday at the opening  of 33rd Assembly of the AU Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The DRC presidential press said that the President of Djibouti announced the election amid cheers in the Assembly, following a closed meeting of the Heads of State and Government which preceded  the grand opening ceremony.

The 2020 AU office is chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

This year's ordinary session of African leaders is holding under the theme: ’Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development.‘

Ramaphosa has taken over the chair from  Egyptian President Al Sisi.

President Tshisekedi will preside over the destinies of the AU in 2021 and will be the second president of the DRC to assume the chair of the continental body after President Mobutu Sese Seko in 1967 when it was the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

-0- PANA KON/BEH/KND/AR 10Feb2020