Biographical Note

Secretary-General Appoints Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye of Senegal

 

Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the appointment of Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye of Senegal as Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations.

He replaces Nigeria’s Lieutenant General Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor, whose tour of duty ends on 12 September, the culmination of two particularly busy years which saw the establishment of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) and the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), as well as the emergency operations linked to the Haiti earthquake.  Lieutenant General Obiakor has been a key figure in further articulating the robust peacekeeping concept.  The Secretary-General expresses his sincere gratitude to Lieutenant General Obiakor and wishes him well in his future endeavours.

Lieutenant General Gaye recently handed over his Force Commander duties at the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) (previously the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC)) after five years.  His long and distinguished career with the Senegalese Army includes serving as Chief of Defence staff (2000-2003).  He participated in two United Nations peacekeeping operations; in the Sinai (United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) 1974-1975) and in South Lebanon (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) 1980-1981).  He was then the extraordinary plenipotentiary Ambassador of Senegal to Germany and Austria and to the United Nations in Vienna prior to his nomination as Force Commander of MONUC (now MONUSCO) by the Secretary-General in April 2005.

Lieutenant General Gaye is a graduate of the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in France.  Born in 1951, he is married with two children.

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1163-BIO/4038-PKO/199 of 3 November 2008.

For information media • not an official record