The Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen is a United Nations office created in 2012 to assist the Secretary-General for Yemen. [1]
Jamal Benomar : The first Special Envoy to Yemen was Jamal Benomar who began representing the Secretary General in Yemen during the summer of 2011 but was only formally appointed as a Special Envoy on 1 August 2012. [2] Benomar is from Morocco. Benomar was credited with helping Yemen avert civil war in 2011 and for helping organise the National Dialogue Conference. By the end of 2014 and the start of 2015, a full blown conflict had started in Yemen, which Benomar tried to mediate. Benomar resigned in April 2015 after failing to prevent the conflict. [3]
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed : On 25 April 2015, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed was appointed Special Envoy to Yemen. [4] Ahmed is from Mauritania. Ahmed studied economics at Maastricht University and Montpellier University and also studied human resources at Manchester University. [5] Between 2008 and 2012, Ahmed was a UN resident humanitarian and development co-ordinator in Syria. From 2012 to 2014, he occupied the same position in Yemen. In June 2017, the Houthis accused Mr. Ahmed of having abandoned his neutrality and warned him never to come to Yemen again. Ahmed left his post on 22 January 2018. [6] In June 2018, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in Mauritania.
Martin Griffiths : On 16 February 2018, Martin Griffiths was appointed Special Envoy to Yemen. [7] Griffiths is British and is a career diplomat. Griffiths previously served as the first executive director of the European Institute of Peace from 2016 to September 2018. [8] In 1999, he helped launch the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva. [9] On 12 May 2021, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced that he had appointed Griffiths as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). [10]
Hans Grundberg : On 6 August 2021, Hans Grundberg was appointment by António Guterres as his Special Envoy for Yemen. Grundberg who is from Sweden has served as ambassador of the European Union to Yemen since 2019. [11]
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator is a high-level position in the United Nations that heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
An under-secretary-general of the United Nations (USG) is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the secretary-general for a renewable term of four years. Under-secretary-general is the third highest rank in the United Nations, after the secretary-general and the deputy secretary-general. The rank is held by the heads of different UN entities, certain high officials of the United Nations Secretariat, and high-level envoys. The United Nations regards the rank as equal to that of a cabinet minister of a member state, and under-secretaries-general have diplomatic immunity under the UN Charter.
The United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nations (UN) with responsibility for monitoring and assessing global political developments and advising and assisting the UN Secretary General and his envoys in the peaceful prevention and resolution of conflict around the world. The department manages field-based political missions in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East, and has been increasing its professional capacities in conflict mediation and preventive diplomacy. DPPA also oversees UN electoral assistance to Member States of the organization. Established in 1992, the department's responsibilities also include providing secretariat support to the UN Security Council and two standing committees created by the General Assembly concerning the Rights of the Palestinian People and Decolonization. DPPA is based at the UN Headquarters in New York City.
Cheikh El Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna is a Mauritanian political figure. He was the 7th Prime Minister of Mauritania from January 2, 1996, to December 18, 1997, Minister of Foreign Affairs from July 12, 1998, to November 16, 1998, and Prime Minister again from November 16, 1998, to July 6, 2003, under President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya; later, he briefly served as Minister of Foreign Affairs again in 2008.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah is a Mauritanian diplomat who was a senior United Nations official.
A Special Envoy of the Secretary-General (SESG) is a senior United Nations official appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to deal with a set of specific issues.
The 2008 Mauritanian coup d'état was a military coup that took place in Mauritania on August 6, 2008, when President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was ousted from power by the Armed Forces of Mauritania, led by a group of high-ranking generals he had dismissed from office earlier that day.
Anthony Banbury was appointed the President and Chief Executive Officer of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in 2018. He served as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Field Support until 5 February 2016. He resigned from this position, stating that the UN is in dire need of reform. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience with the UN, he criticized its sclerotic personnel system, a lack of accountability, insufficient impact and the UN's inability to deal with transgressions by its own staff.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the national ministry of foreign affairs of Mauritania. It has its headquarters in Nouakchott, just to the northwest of the Nouakchott Convention Center complex.
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) is a United Nations (UN) advanced mission in Libya, created in the aftermath of the Libyan Civil War. UNSMIL is a political mission, not a military mission. The main elements of its mandate defined by the UN include supporting Libyan transitional authorities in "post-conflict efforts", providing mediation in implementing Libyan political agreements, supporting key Libyan institutions and monitoring and reporting on human rights. UNSMIL is led by the UN Department of Political Affairs.
Jamal Benomar is a former UN diplomat. He worked at the UN for 25 years, including as a special envoy for Yemen and a special adviser to former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Ismaïl Ould Cheikh Ahmed is a Mauritanian diplomat and politician. He served as a United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen and was therefore head of the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen from 25 April 2015 to 26 February 2018.
Yahya Ould Hademine is a Mauritanian engineer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Mauritania. He served as the Prime Minister of Mauritania from August 21, 2014 to October 29, 2018.
On 26 March 2015, Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of nine countries from West Asia and North Africa, launched an intervention in Yemen at the request of Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who had been ousted from the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 by Houthi insurgents during the Yemeni Civil War. Efforts by the United Nations to facilitate a power sharing arrangement under a new transitional government collapsed, leading to escalating conflict between government forces, Houthi rebels, and other armed groups, which culminated in Hadi fleeing to Saudi Arabia shortly before it began military operations in the country.
International reactions to the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen of 2015 were mixed. Most other Arab League nations and several Western governments backed the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition, but other governments warned against an escalation in the violent situation in Yemen.
The Supreme Political Council is an executive body formed by the Houthi movement and the pro-Houthi faction of the General People's Congress (GPC) to rule Yemen. Formed on 28 July 2016, the presidential council consists of thirteen members and was headed by Saleh Ali al-Sammad as president until he was killed by a drone strike on 19 April 2018, with Qassem Labozah as vice-president. Presently the council is headed by Mahdi al-Mashat as Chairman. The territory that it rules consists most of the former North Yemen, which united with South Yemen in 1990.
Martin Griffiths is a British diplomat and served as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations. United Nations, from 12 May 2021 until June 2024.
Anita Kiki Gbeho is a Ghanaian United Nations official who is the Deputy Special Representative in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan and Resident Coordinator in South Sudan since 8 December 2023.
Hans Grundberg is a Swedish diplomat and the current UN Special Envoy for Yemen since August 2021.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Wikipedia articles available about the Yemeni crisis, revolution, and Yemeni civil war (2014–present).