Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL REASSIGNS LAMINE CISSÉ OF SENEGAL AS OFFICER-IN-CHARGE

OF UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR WEST AFRICA

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has temporarily reassigned General Lamine Cissé of Senegal as Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Office in West Africa.  Since July 2001, General Cissé has served in the Central African Republic as the Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the United Nations Peace-Building Support Office in the Central African Republic (BONUCA).

Before joining the United Nations, General Cissé was Minister of Interior (January 1998 to 2000), and served in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Senegal as a four-star Army General and Chief of Staff (1964-1997).

As Minister of Interior, General Cissé successfully organized Senegal’s 1998 legislative elections, 1999 senatorial elections and the presidential elections in 2000.  The elections assured the peaceful transfer of power in the country.

General Cissé attended the National Defense University in Washington D.C., the Center for Higher Studies in National Defence in Paris, as well as the Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth in Kansas City, United States.  In France, he also attended the University of Rennes and the Special Military Academy of Saint Cyr.

General Cissé holds the following honorary titles:  Commander of the National Order of Lion ( Senegal); Grand Croix of the Order of Merit ( Senegal); Officer of the Legion d’Honneur ( France); Grand Officer of the Order of Merit ( France); Chevalier of the National Order ( Nigeria); and Grand Officer of the Order of Malta.  In 2001, he authored and published a book entitled Secret memoirs of a Regime Change- A Soldier in the Midst of Democracy.

General Cissé is currently the Chairman of the International Observatory for Democracy and Management of Crises and Conflicts, which he founded in April 2000.

He was born in 1939.

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For information media • not an official record