MOGADISHU, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed George Conway as his new deputy special representative for Somalia with the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and resident coordinator in Somalia.
Conway will also serve as the humanitarian coordinator in Somalia where the humanitarian situation remains extremely alarming, with about 8.25 million people in need of humanitarian and protection assistance and over 3.2 million people displaced.
"Conway succeeds Adam Abdelmoula of Sudan, who was appointed as resident coordinator in Syria, and to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedication and service in Somalia," the UN said in a statement issued on Friday evening.
Conway, who has over 20 years of critical experience in crisis prevention and peacebuilding, is currently deployed as the acting deputy special representative of the secretary-general/resident coordinator/humanitarian coordinator for Somalia for the second time, having served previously in the position on an acting basis in 2019.
He is on secondment from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Crisis Bureau in New York.
Prior to this, he served as country director for UNDP in Somalia (2013-2019) and has also held several senior positions within UNDP, including as strategic adviser to the regional bureau for Africa, acting UNDP Country Director in South Sudan, head of programs in southern Sudan (Sudan), according to the statement. ■