Biographical Note

Secretary-General Appoints Haile Menkerios of South Africa

 

Special Envoy for Sudan, South Sudan

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Haile Menkerios of South Africa as his Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan.

Having served as Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission in Sudan since 1 March 2010, Mr. Menkerios will continue, in his new capacity, to help the parties reach a negotiated settlement of residual Comprehensive Peace Agreement and post-secession issues.

Mr. Menkerios brings to the position extensive experience in African issues.  After joining the United Nations in 2002, he was appointed Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs on 1 July 2007.  Actively engaged in representing the Secretary-General’s preventive diplomacy in Africa, he facilitated the Nairobi Communiqué between the Governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda regarding the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and other illegal armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Before that appointment, he was Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2005 to 2007.

Between 2003 and 2005, Mr. Menkerios was the Director of the Africa I Division in the Department of Political Affairs.  In 2002, he served as Senior Adviser to the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and assisted the Special Envoy on all aspects of the mediation process leading up to the signing of the Global and All-Inclusive Agreement on 17 December 2002 in Sun City, South Africa.

From 1991 to 2000, Mr. Menkerios represented the Government of Eritrea in various capacities, including as Ambassador to Ethiopia and the Organisation of African Unity, Special Envoy to Somalia and also to the Great Lakes region, and as Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Mr. Menkerios has a master’s degree from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University.

He was born on 1 October 1946.

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1219-AFR/1937-BIO/4165.

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