African Union

Why are six countries suspended from the African Union?

All six had military coups, and the AU's founding act bars governments that come to power unconstitutionally from its activities. Africa had 11 successful coups from 2020 to the end of 2025, by one academic count. The AU suspended every country involved except Chad, where it accepted a military transition in May 2021. A suspended country stays a member and still pays its dues, but cannot take part in AU meetings. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger formed their own Alliance of Sahel States in 2023 and left the West African bloc ECOWAS in January 2025, but all three remain AU members.

Two countries came back after elections. Gabon was readmitted on April 30, 2025, after coup leader Brice Oligui Nguema won the presidency with 90.35% of the vote. Guinea was readmitted on January 22, 2026, after coup leader Mamady Doumbouya won with 86.72%. In April 2025 the Addis Ababa think tank Amani Africa warned that letting coup leaders run, as in Chad and Gabon, undermines the AU's own rule against it.

Why did Morocco leave the African Union?

Morocco left because of Western Sahara. Morocco holds about 80% of the territory, west of a long sand wall. The Polisario Front, which wants independence, holds the rest. The OAU admitted the Polisario's Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a member on February 22, 1982. When a Sahrawi delegation attended an OAU summit for the first time, on November 12, 1984, Morocco left the organization the same day.

Morocco came back after 33 years. The AU's leaders approved its return on January 30, 2017, by 39 votes to 9. The Sahrawi Republic is still a full member. Morocco argues it should not be, because it is not a UN member and has no defined territory. In February 2026 Morocco won a seat on the AU's Peace and Security Council with 34 votes. The Sahrawi Republic had run for the same seat and pulled out the week before.

What does the African Union do?

The AU's leaders meet every February in Addis Ababa and elect a chair for one year. In 2026 the chair is Burundi's President Évariste Ndayishimiye. The AU Commission, chaired by Mahmoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti since 2025, runs the day-to-day work. The 15-member Peace and Security Council, set up in 2004, decides on suspensions and peace missions. The headquarters tower is 99.9 meters tall, for September 9, 1999, the date of the summit that called for the AU. China paid for the building, about $200 million. In January 2018 the French newspaper Le Monde reported that data from the building's computers had been copied to servers in Shanghai every night for five years. China called the report "baseless."

Of the AU's $800 million budget for 2027, member states pay $200 million. Foreign partners such as the European Union pay $511 million, about two thirds of the total. In 2016 members agreed to pay for the AU with a 0.2% levy on imports, but only 17 applied it in 2025.

How big is the African Union?

The AU's members cover 22% of the area of all the world's countries, not counting Antarctica, and have 1.55 billion people, 19% of the world. Nigeria (238 million), Ethiopia, Egypt and DR Congo have the most people. Its members' economies together were worth $3.1 trillion in 2025 at market exchange rates, a little less than France's alone ($3.4 trillion). South Africa ($427 billion), Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria are the largest. The European Union has fewer than a third as many people (449 million) and an economy almost seven times larger ($21.2 trillion). GDP per person ranges from $18,479 in Seychelles to $470 in South Sudan (IMF, 2025).