African Union
IGOinternational
| African Union link () Sourcewatch Website | |
|---|---|
| File:AU.png | |
| Formation | 9 July 2002 |
| Leader | African Union/Chair |
| Type | international |
| Membership | Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Western Sahara |
The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, and was founded on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and launched on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa.[1]
The AU was intended to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was disbanded on 9 July 2002.
The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa.
The African Union has over 1.3 billion people and an area of around 29 million km2 (11 million sq mi). The largest city in the AU is Lagos, Nigeria, while the largest urban agglomeration is Cairo, Egypt.[2]