United Nations Secretary-General General António Guterres Thursday appointed Tesfay Gidey Hailemichael of Ethiopia as new Force Commander for the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

He succeeds Major General Hassen Ebrahim Mussa of Ethiopia, who completed his assignment on 17 January 2017.

Major General Hailemichael has had a long and distinguished career with the Ethiopian Armed Forces spanning over thirty-three years.

He graduated from the Ethiopian Defense Command and Staff College (1995) and is currently the Head of the Defense Logistics Department in the Ethiopian Armed Forces since April 2014.

 Abyei, an oil-rich land on the border between Sudan and South Sudan, is still contested after the two countries failed to recognize a unilateral plebiscite conducted in October 2013.