Ambassador Amira Qarnas has been elected as the next chairperson of the UN Food and Agriculture's Committee on Food Security. The committee is an intergovernmental forum that reviews food security policies worldwide and reports to the UN Economic and Social Council.

Amira had been serving as Sudan's ambassador to Rome-based UN agencies.

Reuters reported that the move sparked annoyance among some Western diplomats in New York, quoting one as saying, “It's completely outrageous that in the same week we find out the Sudanese government has been blocking food supplies to peacekeepers [in Darfur], that they would even consider putting forward a candidate for the committee on world food security.”

For its part, the state-run Sudan News Agency reported that the election of Qarnas was "considered a diplomatic gain to Sudanese diplomacy, because the committee is concerned with making policies regarding world food security."

Citing a diplomatic source, SUNA said that Qarnas' bid for the chair of the committee "found wide acceptance from all regional groups at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)."