Senegal's former President, Macky Sall, won't be a candidate for UN Secretary-General

 

Senegal: The AU refuses to support former President Macky Sall's candidacy for UN Secretary-General

Presented to the 55 member states of the continental organisation on Friday, 27 March, the draft decision was rejected by about twenty of them – including Senegal, whose current government in Dakar maintains strained relations with Macky Sall. 

The initiative had been launched by Burundi, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the AU.

According to a note from the AU Commission consulted by my RFI colleague in Dakar, 20 states – including Senegal – vetoed this initiative, thus giving the upper hand to Dakar, which had been shown to be opposed to it.

In a letter from the Permanent Mission of Senegal to the AU, Senegalese authorities indicated their refusal to support Macky Sall's candidacy to replace António Guterres, whose term as head of the United Nations will end at the end of the year.

The Senegalese government has, “at no stage, endorsed this candidacy and has not been associated with the initiative.” The country therefore cannot be considered “a stakeholder in the said process” – launched by Burundi, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the AU – the letter states.

And 19 other member countries of the continental organisation, including Tunisia, South Africa and Nigeria, did the same.

Abuja explained that a nomination of Macky Sall to the post of secretary general would violate the principle of rotation which stipulates that it is the turn of Latin America and the Caribbean to give one to the UN.

The draft decision supporting this candidacy could not be accepted thus, as it did not meet the criteria of the so-called "tacit approval" procedure under which it had been submitted to the Member States – a procedure according to which the text should not raise objections from more than one third of the 55 countries belonging to the organisation.

The lack of support from the African Union for Macky Sall's candidacy is good news for the current government in power in Dakar, as the authorities elected two years ago still maintain cold relations with the former president. They accuse him of having indebted the country and of being responsible for the violent repression of political demonstrations, which have caused at least 65 deaths between 2021 and 2024.

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