Sahara: UN Envoy Staffan De Mistura preparing his 1st regional tour

As his predecessors, the new UN envoy for the Sahara, Staffan De Mistura, is expected to head shortly to the North African region for consultations with the parties to the Sahara conflict: Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and the Polisario.

The UN envoy “is actively preparing his first regional tour”, has said lately Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General during his daily press briefing.

Mr. De Mistura is “in contact with all the relevant parties and their neighbors. He is looking forward to the visit as an opportunity to meet relevant partners and hold discussions in the region”.

But, at this point, “there is no other details to confirm, no dates to confirm”, underlined the spokesperson for the UN Chief.

Staffan de Mistura is an experienced Italian-Swedish diplomat in conflicts management and resolution. He has replaced German Host Kohler who resigned in May 2019 for “health reasons”.

Mr.Staffan had served as UN special envoy for Syria (2014 to 2019), special representative of UN Secretary General for Iraq (2007-2009), Afghanistan (2010-2011) and South Lebanon (2001-2004).