Algerian manoeuvres to derail Moroccan appointment to AU fail

The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched on Sunday a scathing attack on the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Mahamat Faki, after he received the Moroccan diplomat Amina Selmane to present her credentials as permanent representative of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) to the AU.

Algeria said it was “deep astonished” at Faki’s “casual” and “reckless” decision to receive credentials of a Moroccan diplomat falsely presenting herself as “Permanent Representative” of the AMU to the AU.

However, the Moroccan diplomat had indeed been appointed by the AMU for this post, according to a press release from the general secretariat of the union.

Algeria accused Faki of accepting a “gross protocolary staging” that yielded to an operation of “unhealthy manipulation, designed and implemented for purposes that in no way serve the interests of the UMA and the UA”, sinking even more into ridicule.

Algeria also claimed that it was never consulted about Selmane’s appointment, which it said was made outside the rules provided for by the Treaty establishing the UMA of February 1989.

The Treaty requires the unanimous vote of the member states at the level of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the AMU, the only body able to rule both on this appointment and on the establishment of cooperation relations with other countries.

Algeria’s reaction is seen as a last-ditch effort to torpedo Selmane’s appointment, as the country had tried to denigrate the AMU SG, Taïeb Baccouche, in his statutory prerogatives through a political campaign with the President of the AMU Commission and the member states of the Union.  However, Algeria received no political support for its approach and resorted to attacking Faki head-on.