New head of joint African Union-UN peacekeepers in Darfur arrives in Sudan

Veteran Nigerian diplomat Ibrahim Gambari, who most recently served as top United Nations envoy for Myanmar, arrived in Sudan today to assume his new duties as Joint Special Representative and head of the joint African Union-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

Mr. Gambari, who in his UN career has served as Special Adviser on the International Compact with Iraq, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Special Adviser on Africa and head of the UN mission in Angola, as well serving as Nigeria’s UN Ambassador from 1990 to 1999, will meet with a number of leaders and groups over the next two weeks, including Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, Darfur authorities and UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) officials.

He succeeds Rodolphe Adada of the Republic of Congo at the head of UNAMID, which was set up in 2007 to try to quell the violence in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed and another 2.7 million forced from their homes since fighting erupted in 2003, pitting rebels against Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen.

“I look forward very much to working with all the stakeholders in this country,” Mr. Gambari said on arrival in Khartoum, the capital.