Top Mozambican diplomat to head AU Somalia mission

Friday October 9, 2015

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Mozambique’s top diplomat, Francisco Madeira, has been appointed by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma,as her special representative for Somalia and head of the AU Mission in Somalia, AMISOM, replacing Maman Sambo Sidikou of Niger, APA can report.An AU media statement emailed to APA says “the appointment of Madeira to head AMISOM comes at a time when the AU is attempting to expedite the stabilisation of Somalia, so as to pave the way for the successful holding of general elections in 2016”.

Since 2010, Madeira had been AU Special Representative for Counter-Terrorism Cooperation and director of the Algiers-based African Centre for Study and Research on Terrorism, ACSRT.

In Mozambican government service, he was an ambassador to several African countries in the early 1980s, and then diplomatic advisor to President Joaquim Chissano. He was a member of the government delegation to the peace negotiations in Rome with the apartheid-backed rebel movement Renamo, held sporadically between 1990 and 1992, and which culminated in the peace agreement of 4 October 1992 which ended the war of destabilization.

He was Minister in the President’s Office for Parliamentary Affairs between 1995 and 1999, and then Minister in the President’s Office for Diplomatic Affairs between 2000 and 2010.

He was involved in several African peace initiatives – this included membership of the facilitation teams in the Arusha peace negotiations on Burundi in 997-2000, special envoy of Chissano, who was then AU chairperson to Sao Tome and Principe after the July 2003 coup, and special envoy for the Comoros, first of the Organisation of African Unity OAU and then of the AU-1997-2010.

“Given his experience in counter-terrorism, Ambassador Madeira is expected to give a new impetus to the campaign to neutralize al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups, building on the tremendous achievements made by AMISOM over the past few years, in particular with the recovery of many of the major cities and other strategic locations of south-central Somalia”, the release added.

The AU document also adds that Madeira will be expected “to maintain constant interaction with the Federal Government of Somalia, and other Somali stakeholders”, as well as all relevant bilateral and multilateral partners.

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