NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF BENIN PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

5 October 1999

Press Release
BIO/3252

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF BENIN PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

19991005 Biographical Note

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Joel Wassi Adechi, the new Permanent Representative of Benin to the United Nations, presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.

Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Adechi served as Director of the Cabinet and Director of State Protocol. He has also been Director of the American Section in his Foreign Ministry and Director of the African and Arab Countries Section.

From 1990 to 1994, he was Minister Counsellor at the Embassy of Benin in Ottawa, Canada, and from 1994 to 1996, Minister Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Benin to the United Nations. Mr. Adechi also served as Second Counsellor and later Chargé d’affaires at the Embassy of Benin in Kinshasa, Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo), from 1978 to 1985.

Mr. Adechi received a law degree from the University of Brazzaville in 1973, and an advanced law degree from the University of Orléans in France in 1974. He also holds a diploma in diplomacy from the Institut International d’Administration Publique in Paris.

Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1949, Mr. Adechi is married and has four children.

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