The African Union governs a bloc bigger than any nation on Earth
Fifty-five member states, more than 1.5 billion people and about 30 million square kilometres, from the Sahara to the Nile. The African Union, launched in Durban in 2002, replaced an older club of 32 founding governments and now sits alongside the world's largest economies as a member of the G20.
The union grew out of the Sirte Declaration, announced in the Libyan city of that name on 9 September 1999. It formally began on 9 July 2002, the same day its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, was wound up. The OAU dated back to 25 May 1963, when 32 governments signed its founding document in Addis Ababa, and the Ethiopian capital still hosts the AU Commission, the body that serves as the union's secretariat.
Real power lies with the Assembly, a gathering of heads of state and government that meets twice a year. Burundi's president, Évariste Ndayishimiye, chairs it. Foreign ministers in the Executive Council prepare its decisions, national ambassadors in Addis Ababa form a permanent committee, and a civil-society council offers advice. The Pan-African Parliament has 265 members chosen by national legislatures, while the Commission is led by Mahamoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti. Other organs are spread across the continent, such as the human rights commission based in Banjul, the Gambia.
The founding goals read like a wish list for a continent. They include defending members' sovereignty and borders, speeding up political and economic integration, presenting common African positions abroad, promoting peace and security, and backing democratic institutions and good governance. Human and peoples' rights are to be protected under the African Charter, science and technology research encouraged, and preventable diseases fought with international partners. Harmonising the policies of the regional economic communities is meant to move the union gradually toward those aims.
Its human geography is vast. Lagos in Nigeria is the largest city within the union, Cairo the largest urban sprawl. Work is done in six languages, Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Swahili, and bodies such as the Peace and Security Council give it instruments beyond talk.
Source: African Union
