SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS ABDALLAH WAFY OF NIGER DEPUTY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

NEW YORK, June 27, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the appointment of Abdallah Wafy of Niger as his Deputy Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he will head the Rule of Law component of the United Nations Mission there.

Mr. Wafy replaces Leila Zerrougui of Algeria, who assumed her appointment as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict in August 2012. He has been serving as Deputy Special Representative for the Rule of Law in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) ad interim since September 2012, in addition to his responsibilities as Police Commissioner and Head of the Mission's police component.

Prior to joining MONUSCO as Police Commissioner in 2010, Mr. Wafy held various senior positions in the Government of Niger, including, notably, Senior Security Adviser to the Minister for Interior, Public Safety and Decentralization; Inspector General of Police; Special Security Adviser to the President; and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Libya and Permanent Representative of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States in Tripoli. He has also served with the civilian police in the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI) from 2006 to 2007, and as Deputy Head of the Police component of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) in 2009.

Mr. Wafy holds a master's degree in law from the Université du Bénin ( Lomé, Togo) and graduated from the Ecole nationale supérieure de police (Saint-Cyr au Mont d'Or, France).

He is married and has five children.