Secretary-General Appoints Mohamed El-Amine Souef of Comoros Special Representative for Central Africa, Head of UN Regional Office

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Mohamed El-Amine Souef of the Comoros as his new Special Representative for Central Africa and Head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA).  He succeeds Abdou Abarry of Niger, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his important contribution and service to UNOCA.

Mr. Souef brings 35 years of experience in the areas of diplomacy, foreign affairs and peacekeeping.  Since March 2025, he has served as Chief of Staff of the African Union Commission.  Previously, from 2022 to 2025, he was the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union for Somalia and Head of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), and its predecessor, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).

Prior to joining the African Union, Mr. Souef served in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) from 2020 to 2022 and 2015 to 2017, and the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) from 2011 to 2015.

Mr. Souef has held various leadership positions in the Government of the Comoros, including Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation from 2017 to 2020 and 1999 to 2005; Permanent Representative of the Comoros to the United Nations in 2006; Member of Parliament at the National Assembly in 2002; Ambassador of the Comoros to Egypt and Permanent Representative to the League of Arab States between 1994 and 1998, and Adviser to the President of the Comoros from 1992 to 1994.

Mr. Souef holds a post-graduate diploma of Advanced Studies in Modern Literature from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, Morocco, and a bachelor’s degree in Language and Literature from the University of Medina in Saudi Arabia.  He also attended diplomatic training at the Institute for Diplomatic Studies of Egypt in 1991 and the Foreign Service Academy of Islamabad, Pakistan from 1991 to 1992.  He is the author of six books on politics and geopolitics.  In addition to his native Comorian, he is fluent in Arabic, English, French and Swahili.