Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS BERHANU DINKA AS HIS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR BURUNDI

The Secretary-General announced on 19 July the appointment of Berhanu Dinka (Ethiopia) as his Special Representative for Burundi.

Mr. Dinka was formerly the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Regional Humanitarian Adviser for the Great Lakes Region.  Prior to that, he served as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to Sierra Leone.  Mr. Dinka also served with the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) as Senior Political Adviser to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and as Director for Special Duties, responsible for UNOSOM’s relations with the countries and intergovernmental organizations in the region.

He served with two other United Nations missions, in South Africa as Deputy Director for Eastern Cape and in Cambodia as Deputy Director for the province of Kampong-Cham.  From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Dinka worked as Consultant for the International Livestock Centre, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Peace Academy.

Having joined the Ethiopian Foreign Service in 1959, he served in several capitals at various levels of assignment until 1975, when he was appointed as Director for Africa and the Middle East in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the rank of Ambassador.  He was then assigned as Ambassador to Djibouti, Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador to Canada, and Chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Special Committee of 24).

Born on 4 June 1935 in the province of Wollega in Ethiopia, Mr. Dinka was educated in Ethiopia and in the United States.  He holds degrees in politics and economics.

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