NEW YORK (Halbeeg News) – A former UN envoy to South Sudan was appointed on Wednesday to be the new UN envoy for Somalia.
Nicholas Haysom, 56, will succeed Michael Keating who will wrap up at the end of September after close to three years in the post to support Somalia’s political transition.
“United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Nicholas Haysom of South Africa as his Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM),” Guterres’ press office said Wednesday, “He will succeed Michael Keating of the United Kingdom effective 1 October, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his exemplary service and leadership of UNSOM.”
The South African national, who was born in 1952, was involved in the Burundian peace process from 1999 to 2002, and in the Sudan peace process from 2002 to 2005.
He is currently concluding his U.N job in Sudan and South Sudan where he has been serving as special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan since 2016.
The new envoy earned a degree in law from the Universities of Natal and Cape Town in South Africa. In 2012, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town.
Haysom will serve as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy and as head of UNSOM, the UN assistance mission in Somalia, working to help rebuild the country after decades of turmoil.
Discussion about this post