Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, Antonio Guterres's top pick for UNSMIL head after Salame resignation

摘要

Mauritania's current minister of foreign affairs Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed is at the top of a very long list of potential candidates the UN is considering to head its support mission to Libya. Talks over who will replace Ghassan Salamé at the helm of the United Nations support mission to Libya, UNSMIL, are now in their final stages. United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres has let his main advisors know that he is leaning towards the current Mauritanian minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. This diplomat is not an official candidate for the UNSMIL job but is used to taking on impossible tasks. In 2015, Ban Ki-moon appointed Ahmed as his special envoy for Yemen, a post that he held for three years before becoming minister in 2018. This international senior official has worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UNICEF. He gained first-hand insight into the specifics of Libya's situation when the deputy head of UNSMIL between 2014 and 2015. As deputy he reported first to Tarek Mitri then Bernardino León, who only briefly led UNSMIL for less than a year. Mauritania's head of state Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has been highly involved in Libya. He took part in a summit on the Libyan crisis led by Congolese president Denis Sassou Nguesso in late January.