Rwandan diplomat appointed head of UN office in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A Rwandese national will be heading the critical UN support mission in Somalia, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres reported, amid ongoing operation against Al-Shabaab among other internal challenges the country is facing with ravaging drought being a major concern.

Aisa Kirabo Kacyira from Rwanda is the new Head of the United Nations Support Office in Somalia [UNSOS], effectively taking over from Lisa Filipetto of Australia. The mission is important in the essence that it monitors challenges the country is facing and possible solutions for implementation.

The diplomat has experience of about three decades on matters political engagement at local, national, and international levels. She has served as the resident High Commissioner to the Government of Ghana and a non-resident representative to Benin, Togo, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, and Liberia since 2020.

Previously, Kacyira served as governor of Eastern province and also served as Executive Mayor of Kigali, the Rwandese capital. She also served as a Member of Parliament in the republic of Rwanda from 2003-06, her biodata indicates, painting a picture of an experienced civil servant.

Also, she served as Deputy Director with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme [UN-Habitat] for a period of seven years [2011-2018]. Further, she has also worked in program and project management with the Ministry of Agriculture in Rwanda, as well as various NGOs, including Oxfam and Care International.

The diplomat has aMaster of Veterinarian Science in Animal Production and Economics from James Cook University in Australia and a Bachelor of Veterinarian Medicine from Makerere University in Uganda. She takes over a country that has struggled to embrace democracy for decades.

Her duties involve providing administrative and logistical support, such as living and office accommodation, food, water, transportation, medical facilities, and finance and human resources support to UNSOM, the political mission in all regions of Somalia, the UN boss said in a statement.

The UN has been monitoring situations in Somalia and has significantly contributed towards helping the country to stabilize. Al-Shabaab militants remain the major threat to the country having been targeting innocent civilians and members of security forces, killing a number of them in the process.

GAROWE ONLINE