UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Tuesday the appointment of Lieutenant-General Yohannes Gebremeskel Tesfamariam of Ethiopia as the Force Commander for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
Lieutenant-General Tesfamariam succeeds Major-General Delali Johnson Sakyi of Ghana, who completed his assignment on 9 June 2014.
The appointment puts Tesfamariam in a key position in the mission because it comes before the announcement of a successor of UNMISS chief Hilde Johnson, who announced her departure unexpectedly in late May, and also because of the anticipated role within UNMISS of regional forces belonging to the Ethiopian-chaired IGAD East African organization.
Last month the UN Security Council decided that three new battalions would be detailed to UNMISS from East African countries – IGAD member states.
According to the revised mandate of UNMISS, the IGAD force will not only share the general peacekeeping responsibilities of the mission but will have the additional special task of protecting IGAD ceasefire monitoring teams.
This gives the regional forces a role that is more directly linked to the ceasefire observation mission and political mediation process led by Ethiopian diplomat Seyoum Mesfin with the backing of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
The Ethiopian Foreign ministry announced earlier this month that the IGAD contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission would fall under Ethiopian leadership, and would include troops from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda.
Prior to this assignment Lieutenant-General Tesfamariam served as the Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei. That mission, unlike UNMISS, has been under military rather than civilian leadership since its establishment in 2011.
Besides services with UN peacekeepers, the Ethiopian general has spent decades in the Ethiopian military, including as commander of the Army Corps and head of the Military Intelligence in the Ministry of Defence.
Related:
Security Council renews, revises UNMISS mandate (28 May)