New York - Haile Menkerios of South Africa was appointed on Friday the United Nations special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan.
Menkerios was chief of the UN mission in Sudan, which monitored the peace process between Khartoum and Juba. The mission was terminated after South Sudan seceded from the rest of Sudan and became an independent nation on July 9.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Menkerios, in his new capacity as the UN envoy, will “continue to assist the parties reach a negotiated settlement” of residual issues in the 2005 peace agreement that opened the way for South Sudan's recent secession from the north.
“Mr Menkerios brings to the position extensive experience in African issues,” Ban said.
Menkerios joined the UN political affairs staff in 2002 and served in posts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda before heading the UN mission in Sudan in 2010. - Sapa-dpa