Ethiopian appointed as U.N. Assistant Secretary General

NEW YORK (UN) — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Tayé-Brook Zerihoun of Ethiopia as the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs in the Department of Political Affairs. Mr. Zerihoun replaces Haile Menkerios of South Africa, who has been appointed as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan for a one-year period.

Mr. Zerihoun brings to this position a wealth of experience and administrative skills from his various assignments with the United Nations since March 1981. He has worked on special political questions in New York, in different capacities and areas: decolonization; trusteeship; conflict prevention and resolution; peacemaking; peacebuilding; and peacekeeping. Between 1995 and 2003, he served initially as Deputy and then Director of the Africa I Division in the Department of Political Affairs, with responsibility for the countries of the Horn of Africa, Great Lakes and Southern Africa regions, as well as regional organizations, including the Intergovernmental Authority for Development ( IGAD ) and the Southern African Development Community ( SADC ).

Since April 2008, Mr. Zerihoun has served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus ( UNFICYP ). He was the Acting Special Representative of United Nations Mission in the Sudan ( UNMIS ) from October 2006 until October 2007, where he also served as the Secretary-General’s Principal Deputy Representative since August 2004 and Chief United Nations Mediator for the Darfur Peace Talks in support of the efforts of Special Envoy Jan Eliasson.

Mr. Zerihoun completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies in New York, and holds a Master of Philosophy degree in comparative politics from Columbia University.

Mr. Zerihoun was born on 13 December 1942. He is married and has four children.