SECRETARY-GENERAL VISITS DJIBOUTI, 2 - 3 MAY
Press Release
SG/T/2133
AFR/61
SECRETARY-GENERAL VISITS DJIBOUTI, 2 - 3 MAY
19980511(Received from the Spokesman travelling with the Secretary-General.)
Kofi Annan became the first Secretary-General to pay an official visit to Djibouti when he arrived there in the afternoon of Saturday, 2 May.
That evening, he met with the President of Djibouti, Al Hadj Hassan Gouled Aptidon. The President had recently assumed the chairmanship of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which encompasses the nations originally affected by the East African drought of the 1980s -- Eritrea, Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. After a private meeting, the President hosted a dinner for the Secretary-General and his party.
On Sunday morning, the Secretary-General met with Djibouti's Foreign Minister, Mohamed Moussa Chehem, who described the devastating impact on Djibouti of the collapse of the neighbouring Somali State. The Secretary-General pledged United Nations support for the peace efforts in Somalia being led by IGAD.
The Secretary-General then went to IGAD headquarters in Djibouti, where he was briefed on IGAD's peace efforts by the organization's Executive Secretary, Tekeste Ghebray.
After a press conference at the airport, the Secretary-General flew to Nairobi, Kenya, for the third leg of his East African tour.
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