Burundi last month nominated former Senegalese president Macky Sall to succeed United Nations Secretary‑General Antonio Guterres, whose second and final term ends on December 31, 2026.
In his vision statement for the role, Sall said the UN needed to be reformed, streamlined and modernized.
But Senegal told the African Union (AU) it “has not, at any stage, endorsed” the application and that it is neither “associated with the relative initiative undertaken by the Government of Burundi.”
Sall’s bid also lacks full backing from the AU, which he chaired from 2022 to 2023. Around 20 AU member states have registered objections, including South Africa, Algeria, Rwanda, Liberia and Senegal.
How the bid unraveled
On March 2, Burundi, which currently holds the AU’s rotating chairmanship, sent Sall’s nomination in a letter to the president of the UN General Assembly. The Institute for Security Studies (ISS), a South Africa‑based think tank, said the submission blurred the line between a national move and a continental endorsement.
The ISS noted the letter, signed by Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, came just two weeks after the AU summit and may have given the impression of formal AU backing. AU procedures require candidacies to undergo formal review by designated committees before the executive council can endorse them, either by consensus or a two‑thirds vote.
After questions and objections from member states, Burundi reintroduced the nomination on March 26 under the AU’s silence procedure, which gave member states 24 hours to object or approve. The silence procedure is commonly used in multilateral bodies to adopt decisions if no formal objections are raised within a set time.
By the close of business on March 27, some 20 AU members had broken the silence, blocking adoption of the draft decision.
Opposing countries say procedures were breached
Rwanda openly criticized the process and confirmed its opposition through senior officials, calling Ndayishimiye’s push a “gross breach of procedure.” Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe wrote on X that the move was “too much for many AU member states,” accusing the chairperson of issuing a diktat and showing disrespect for AU rules of law.
Nigeria’s Permanent Mission to the AU also broke the silence, saying established procedures and principles were not followed. In a letter to the AU Commission, Nigeria argued Africa should refrain from contesting the secretary‑general post, asserting it is the turn of Latin America and the Caribbean under the “time‑honored principle of continental rotation in the appointment of the United Nations Secretary‑General.”
Djiby Sow, a senior ISS researcher for West Africa and the Sahel, said the AU has an established process that allows in‑depth evaluation of candidacies and that the silence procedure did not permit necessary discussion on a matter as significant as the secretary‑general candidacy.
What happens next?
Even without AU endorsement, Sall remains eligible and individual UN member states can vote for him. He joins three other candidates for the post beginning January 1, 2027: Rebeca Grynspan, former vice president of Costa Rica; Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency; and former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet.
They are scheduled to be interviewed by member states in the second half of April.
Edited by: Keith Walker