The Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel has been chosen to lead Chadian diplomacy.
Mahamat Saleh Annadif is making a comeback as head of the foreign ministry almost 20 years after leaving.
The new head of Chadian diplomacy held the post from 1997 to 2003.
The former Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel is therefore in familiar territory.
He has the difficult task of convincing the African Union and the international community to support the transition period in his country, led by General Mahamat Idriss Deby, son of the late Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed on 20 April 2021 during clashes with rebels.
It is a Herculean task for the new head of Chadian diplomacy.
General Mahamat Idriss Deby has reneged on his April 2021 commitment to work towards a rapid return to constitutional order.
He was invested as Chad’s transitional president for a further 24 months on 10 October, following a national reconciliation dialogue boycotted by a large section of the opposition.
The native of Arada will however be able to count on his well-stocked address book and his glittering international career to plead the cause of Chad in African and international chancelleries.
Mahamat Saleh Annadif was appointed as the African Union’s special representative for Somalia and head of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) on 1 November 2012.
In this capacity, he supervised 22,000 troops, mainly from Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sierra Leone.
In December 2015, he was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as his Special Representative for Mali and Head of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (Minusma), replacing Mongi Hamdi.
In March 2021, Annadif, a member of the International Advisory Council of the African Press Organisation, was appointed to the post of Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in West Africa and the Sahel, a position he held until his appointment as his country’s new foreign minister.
ARD/te/lb/as/APA