Ghanaian appointed to UN mission in southern Sudan

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Major General Delali Johnson Sakyi as the Force Commander for the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS).

A statement issued by the Secretary General in New York on Tuesday said Major General Sakyi succeeds Major General Moses Bisong Obi of Nigeria, who completed his assignment on 18 November 2012, and had served both with the United Nations Mission in the Sudan and UNMISS.

The statement said Major General Sakyi brings with him over 34 years of military command and staff experience at national and international level.

Since January 2012, Major General Sakyi has been the Assistant Commandant of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Junior Division.

It said he previously served as Commander of the Army Combat Training School.

Between 1979 and 2011, Major General Sakyi held command positions from platoon to brigade level and staff positions in the Ghana Armed Forces and operational-level headquarters.

He served the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire as the Abidjan Sector Commander in 2008 and Commander of the Ghana contingent in several peacekeeping missions, namely the Second United Nations Emergency Force in 1979; the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in 1986 and 1993; the United Nations Protection Force in 1995; the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group in both Liberia and Sierra Leone from 1998 to 1999.

According to the statement the new Force Commander previously served the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2002 to 2003.

It expressed the Secretary-General’s gratitude to Major General Moses Bisong Obi for his significant contribution to both missions he served both with the United Nations Mission in the Sudan and UNMISS over the past two years and seven months.

It said a critical period that saw the successful conclusion of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, the peaceful holding of the Southern Sudan self-determination referendum and the birth of a new nation.

Major General Sakyi holds a Bachelor degree (Honours) in Public Administration from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, a graduate of Senior Command and Staff Course, Command and Staff College, Army High Command Course, Army Command College, Nanjing, China and the ECOWAS Senior Mission Leaders Course, National Defence College, Abuja, Nigeria.

Major General Sakyi was born in 1954 and is married with three children.