A Mauritanian diplomat, El-Ghassim Wane, was appointed Monday March 15 as the new UN envoy for Mali by Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
He will lead on site one of the most important peace operations of the Organization, announced the United Nations.
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El-Ghassim Wane succeeds former Chadian foreign minister Mahamat Saleh Annadif, who could take over the management of the UN office for West Africa and the Sahel, based in Dakar.
During his career, he has already held positions in international organizations, notably at the African Union from 2009 to 2015, then from 2017 to 2019, and in the United Nations Department of Peace Operations from 2016. to 2017. He is
“known for his loyalty to the African Union, he is very“
African solutions for African concerns ”, we note at the UN.
On behalf of the UN, he has led a team in recent months to conduct an independent strategic review of the UN-led peace operation in South Sudan, one of the costliest led by the United Nations. Organization in the world, recommending to reduce it without having been followed on this subject by the UN Security Council.
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The UN peace force in Mali, Minusma, has around 14,500 soldiers and police deployed in the country.
Under the administration of Donald Trump, the United States has often criticized this mission, whose annual mandate is renewable in June, for not being the adequate tool in the Malian crisis, going so far as to call for its reconfiguration.
In recent months, another name had been mentioned to lead the Minusma, that of the American David Gressly until recently number two of the UN mission deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On February 15, David Gressly was appointed UN representative in Yemen, where he will also be humanitarian coordinator according to the Organization.
He succeeds in this post to another American, Lise Grande.