Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf held off veteran Kenyan presidential candidate and dealmaker Raila Odinga to be elected as the next chair of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa on 15 February replacing Chad's Moussa Faki Mahamat (AC Vol 66 No 4 Pan-Africanism is on the ballot)...

In contrast Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf and Madagascar's Richard Randriamandrato are low key and from small countries...

Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf is widely regarded as the front-runner having conducted a more discreet but no less diligent campaign than Odinga (AC Vol 65 No 21 Profile: Djibouti's quiet man)...

His main challenger Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has been garnering wide support (AC Vol 65 No 21 Profile: Djibouti's quiet man)...

If Raila Odinga has name recognition across the continent Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has the contact book...

Despite Kenyan ministers publicly claiming to have at least 26 votes locked up for Raila Odinga many pundits believe that the battle to lead the African Union Commission is a 50/50 fight between the veteran Kenyan opposition leader and Djibouti's foreign minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf...

None of his rivals: Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf former Mauritius Foreign Minister Anil Kumarsingh Gayan and Richard James Randriamandrato a former Foreign Minister of Madagascar have anything close to his name recognition political experience or the diplomatic machinery to compete with Kenya's networks...

Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has also banned Democracy International the United States Agency for International Development-funded election observer organisation...

Proposed meetings between Eritrean and Djiboutian officials failed to materialise and Eritrea refused to see Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf...