The African Union (AU) is made up of 55 member states, divided into five geographic regions defined by the Organization of African Union in 1976, which represent all the countries on the African continent.
As of March 2024, there was a record of six member countries banned from participation in the AU after Niger and Gabon were suspended in August 2023.
AU suspensions are usually a response to the overthrowing of a government in a member country, which implies that coups in Africa are now at their highest point in the organization’s 21-year history.
Suspended countries are still considered members but are temporarily shut out of the organization’s meetings and denied a vote in the group’s decision-making processes.
Countries banned from the AU
Here’s an explanation of why each of the six countries will not participate in the election.
Guinea
The country was suspended on September 10, 2021, after a military coup overthrew the country’s first democratically elected president.
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The organization in a statement on Twitter said that the country was suspended from all AU activities and decision-making bodies.
Guinea had previously been suspended from 2008 to 2010. The country’s transitional government is currently led by military leader Mamady Doumbouya.
Sudan
Sudan was suspended in October 2021 after its military led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power from an internationally recognized (but unelected) transitional government.
On the 6th of June 2019, the AU Peace and Security (PSC) Council suspended the participation of the Republic of Sudan in all AU activities until the effective establishment of a civilian-led Transitional Authority.
The PSC further decided that the Council would impose punitive measures on individuals and entities obstructing the establishment of the civilian-led Transitional Authority should the Transition Military Council fail to hand-over power to a civilian-led Transitional Authority.
Genaral Al-Burhan currently serves as the President of the Transitional Sovereign Council of the Republic of the Sudan.
The country had previously been suspended in 2019 amid the aftermath of an earlier coup.
It was, however, reinstated after the formation of the same transitional government that would be overthrown a year later.
Burkina Faso and Mali
Burkina Faso was suspended from the AU in January 2022 after soldiers led by current President Ibrahim Traore overthrew its elected government during an army mutiny.
The country had previously been suspended briefly in 2015.
Guinea, Burkina Faso and Sudan alongside Mali, which had already been suspended earlier in 2021, pushed for their suspensions to be lifted in February 2023, but their requests were firmly denied.
The 1001st meeting of the AU’S PSC convened on 1st June 2021, on the situation in the Republic of Mali and decided, accordingly, in line with the relevant AU normative instruments, to immediately suspend the country from participation in all activities of the union, its organs and institutions, until normal constitutional order has been restored in the country.
Colonel Assimi Goita currently acts as the President of the Malian Transition Government.
Mali was suspended after the AU organ condemned and totally rejected coups d’état and unconstitutional changes of government on the continent, consistent with the provisions of Article 4(p) of the AU Constitutive Act.
Niger
The African Union announced Niger’s suspension on August 22, 2023, ending an unusually long wait after the country’s July 26 coup.
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Abdourahamane Tchiani is the current President of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), Niger.
Gabon
A week following Niger’s suspension, the AU also swiftly suspended Gabon just a day after that country had a coup of its own.
Following the coup, military officer Brice Oligui Nguema took over as the Chairman of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions and the Commander-in-Chief of the Gabonese Republican Guard.
AU this week cleared São Tomé and Príncipe to participate in the AUC elections following payment of its dues to the union.
The current number of suspended members (six) breaks the previous record of four, which has been reached twice in the AU’s 21-year history, most recently from 2022 to 2023, before Gabon and Niger joined the list.
The other time suspensions reached that level was from 2013 to 2014, when Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, the Central African Republic, and Egypt all had suspension status at the same time.
That situation ended after about six months, when Madagascar’s suspension was lifted.
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