United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced on Friday the appointment of Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of Ghana as the global body's new envoy to Libya, replacing Senegal's Abdoulaye Bathily who stepped down last April.
Before joining the United Nations, Tetteh was a senior member of the cabinet of the Government of Ghana as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2017, and member of the National Security Council and the Armed Forces Council. She also served as Minister for Trade and Industry from 2009 to 2013.
Tetteh, who has been Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's special representative to the Horn of Africa for the past two years, is the 10th person since 2011 to occupy the sensitive post of special envoy and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
Tetteh's appointment requires endorsement by the UN Security Council, according to AFP.
The post, in a North African country riven by conflict and civil war for over a decade, had been vacant since the surprise departure last April of Bathily.
At the time the Senegalese diplomat warned of a “lack of political will and good faith” by Libyan leaders and said the United Nations could not “operate successfully” in such a climate.
Libya has been mired in political chaos and conflict since the overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
