20 years after Kofi Annan, Africa is back in the race to produce its third UN Secretary-General

The continent has a single representative among the six declared candidates seeking to succeed António Guterres, whose second and final five-year term ends on December 31.

Senegal’s former president, Macky Sall, is hoping to become the third African to occupy the UN’s highest office.

The race entered a crucial phase on Thursday as the candidates took part in a public debate at the UN headquarters in New York, ahead of the Security Council’s first informal straw poll scheduled for July 30.

If ultimately selected by the Security Council and approved by the UN General Assembly, Sall would become the first African Secretary-General since Kofi Annan left office in 2006, ending a two-decade absence of African leadership at the helm of the global body.

Only two Africans have served as Secretary-General since the United Nations was established in 1945.

Egypt’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali became the sixth UN Secretary-General in 1992, serving one five-year term before his bid for reappointment was blocked by a United States veto.

He was succeeded by Ghana’s Kofi Annan, who led the organization for two consecutive terms from 1997 to 2006 and shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations.

Together, the two African diplomats occupied the UN’s highest office for 15 consecutive years, overseeing some of the organization’s most defining moments, including major peacekeeping operations, institutional reforms, and responses to global humanitarian crises.

Since Annan’s departure, the position has been held by South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon and Portugal’s António Guterres, leaving Africa without representation in the UN’s top office for the past 20 years.

Sall now faces competition from five other candidates: former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, former Ecuadorian foreign minister María Fernanda Espinosa, Costa Rican economist Rebeca Grynspan, and Guyanese diplomat Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett.

While there is no formal regional rotation for the Secretary-General post, many diplomats have argued that Latin America is due to hold the office, potentially strengthening the bids of several candidates from the region.

Nevertheless, Africa’s renewed push comes as the continent’s influence in global affairs continues to grow, with its 54 member states representing the largest regional voting bloc in the UN General Assembly and playing an increasingly central role in debates on peace and security, climate change, development finance, and reform of the multilateral system.

The next UN Secretary-General will be chosen through a series of confidential Security Council straw polls before a single candidate is recommended to the General Assembly for formal appointment.

Any of the council’s five permanent members—the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France—can block a candidate by exercising its veto.

For Africa, the outcome will determine whether the continent can once again produce the world’s top diplomat after a 20-year wait.