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Moussa Faki Mahamat
Eight years running Africa's political institution, through a pandemic, a single market and a run of coups.
The rise
Born on 21 June 1960 in Biltine, in eastern Chad, and trained in law, he rose through Idriss Déby's state: prime minister from June 2003 to February 2005, then foreign minister from 2008 to 2017, running Chad's diplomacy through the Darfur spillover and the Sahel wars.
What they did
Elected AU Commission chairperson on 30 January 2017, he served two terms to March 2025, when Djibouti's Mahmoud Ali Youssouf succeeded him. The African Continental Free Trade Area began trading in January 2021; Africa CDC grew into the body that ran the continent's pandemic response; and the AU took a permanent G20 seat in September 2023. He has been 4P special envoy since June 2025.
The full picture
The AU he led suspended Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sudan and Gabon after coups without changing any outcome, and was near-silent on the Tigray war and on the dynastic succession in his own country after Idriss Déby's death in 2021. Most of the Commission's programme budget still came from outside donors when he left.
Why it matters
He ran the continent's main political institution for eight years and left it a single market, a disease agency and a seat at the G20 — then said on his way out what it still could not do for itself.
“An organisation that is independent, and the guardian of our freedom and our sovereignty, cannot be built on other people's money.”