Moustapha Soumaré is the United Nations Deputy Special Representative in the Republic of South Sudan. [1] Prior to this appointment of 24 December 2014 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Mr. Soumaré served as the United Nations Deputy Special Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
South Sudan, officially known as the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East-Central Africa. The country gained its independence from the Republic of the Sudan in 2011, making it the newest country with widespread recognition. Its capital and largest city is Juba.
Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean politician and diplomat who was the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 2007 to December 2016 and succeded by Antonio Guterres. Before becoming Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he graduated from university, accepting his first post in New Delhi, India.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as DR Congo, the DRC, DROC, Congo-Kinshasa, East Congo, or simply the Congo, is a country located in Central Africa. It is sometimes anachronistically referred to by its former name of Zaire, which was its official name between 1971 and 1997. It is, by area, the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, the second-largest in all of Africa, and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of over 78 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populated officially Francophone country, the fourth-most-populated country in Africa, and the 16th-most-populated country in the world. Currently, eastern DR Congo is the scene of ongoing military conflict in Kivu, since 2015.
Over the years, Mr. Soumaré has collected extensive project and development experience. From 2009 to 2012, he was Deputy Special Representative for Recovery and Governance of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). From 2007 to 2009, Soumaré served as Deputy Assistant Administrator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Deputy Regional Director for the Regional Bureau for Africa, New York City. From 2005 to 2007, he was Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Rwanda. From 2000 to 2005, he held a similar position in Benin. Prior to joining the UN, he served both in the Ministry of Rural Development and in the Department of Forestry in Bamako of Mali.
The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was a peacekeeping force established in September 2003 to monitor a ceasefire agreement in Liberia following the resignation of President Charles Taylor and the conclusion of the Second Liberian Civil War. The peacekeeping mission formally withdrew on 30 March 2018. At its peak it consisted of up to 15,000 United Nations military personnel and 1,115 police officers, along with a civilian component. It superseded the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). As of July 2016, 1,240 U.N. military and 606 police personnel remained on the ground, but were there only in case of emergency.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the United Nations' global development network.
Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent, being behind Asia in both categories. At about 30.3 million km2 including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere.
Soumaré graduated with a doctorate degree in Soil and Water Conservation from the University of Belgrade in Yugoslavia.
The University of Belgrade is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest university in Serbia, and one of the most important educational and research centers in Southeast Europe.
Yugoslavia was a country in Southeastern and Central Europe for most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918 under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs with the Kingdom of Serbia, and constituted the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state, following centuries in which the region had been part of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Peter I of Serbia was its first sovereign. The kingdom gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929.
