United Nations

 NEW YORK, 1 December (UN Headquarters) -- On 30 November, the Secretary-General appointed Amara Essy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Côte d'Ivoire and President of the forty-ninth session of the General Assembly, as his Special Envoy to the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo.  

Mr. Essy has had an extensive diplomatic career, during which he served as his country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 1981 to November 1990, when he was appointed Foreign Minister of Côte d'Ivoire. 

As Côte d'Ivoire's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Mr. Essy served as Vice- President of the forty-third session of the General Assembly from September 1988 to September 1989 and as President of the Security Council in January 1990. 

From 1978 to 1981, Mr. Essy was the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Côte d'Ivoire to the Swiss Confederation at Berne, and prior to that, he served as the Permanent Representative of Côte d'Ivoire to the United Nations Office in Geneva and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna.  He was also Chairman of the "Group of 77" developing countries in Geneva from January 1977 to January 1978.

Mr. Essy holds a degree in public law and a diploma of high-level studies, also in public law.  He also holds a diploma from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Switzerland.

Mr. Essy was born on 20 December 1944 in Bouake, Côte d'Ivoire.  He is married and has six children.

Amara Essy will start his mission on 2 December.  He will assess the humanitarian, economic, political, social and security consequences of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on these two neighbouring countries.  Mr. Essy is expected to report back to the Secretary-General on 18 December.