UN Secretary-General António Guterres has announced the appointment of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Sawyerr of Nigeria as the Force Commander for the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei, UNISFA.
Sawyerr succeeds Maj. Gen. Kefyalew Amde Tessema of Ethiopia.
Abyei is an area on the border between South Sudan and the Sudan that
had been accorded special administrative status by the 2004 Protocol on
the Resolution of the Abyei Conflict in the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War.
Maj. Gen. Sawyerr has a military career spanning more than 34 years
with the Nigerian Army, including as the Director of Defence
Information of Nigeria’s Defence Forces since 2021.
Previously, he served as Commandant of the Nigerian Army Armour
School in Bauchi State, North East Nigeria from 2020 to 2021.
He held the position of Brigade Commander twice in North East
Nigeria, and was Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Battalion with
the United Nations Mission in Liberia (2009-2010).
He also served as the Director of Plans at the Nigerian Army
Headquarters (2019-2020) and Deputy Director of Doctrine and Combat
Development (2017-2018).
