SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS ABOU MOUSSA OF CHAD AS PRINCIPAL DEPUTY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CÔTE D’IVOIRE

Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS ABOU MOUSSA OF CHAD AS PRINCIPAL

DEPUTY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CÔTE D’IVOIRE

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has today appointed Abou Moussa as his Principal Deputy Special Representative for Côte d’Ivoire.

Mr. Moussa has served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Relief, Recovery and Rehabilitation in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) since the establishment of the Mission in October 2003.  He concurrently served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme for Liberia.  Since December 2002, Mr. Moussa was the Representative of the Secretary-General heading the Peace-Building Support Office in Liberia (UNOL).  He has been Officer-in-Charge of UNMIL since the departure of the former Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Jacques Paul Klein, on 31 April.

Mr. Moussa joined the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1980 and has served with the organization at several duty stations, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Zambia, Côte d'Ivoire and Switzerland.  In 1999 he became UNHCR Regional Director for West Africa, based in Abidjan.

He received a diploma in international law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and studied at the Advanced School of Journalism in Paris, France.  He later obtained a Diplôme d’Études Supérieures Spécialisées and a Masters Degree in Sociology and Development Economics from the University of the Sorbonne in Paris.  He also holds a Masters Degree in Project Production and Industrial Development.

Mr. Moussa was born in 1950.  He is married with three children.

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