NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF MALI PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF MALI PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Cheick Sidi Diarra, the new Permanent Representative of Mali to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Diarra served as his country’s Ambassador to Algeria from November 1993 until the present.  Before that, he was First Counsellor in the Malian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York from 1989 to 1993, and served as Legal Adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation from 1987 to 1988. 

From 1985 to 1987, he served as Legislative Adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office, and from 1981 to 1985 Mr. Diarra was an official in the Division of Legal Affairs before he rose to head that Division’s Agreements Section.

Having joined the Malian civil service in January 1981, he was assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, where he served as an official in the Cultural and Social Cooperation Division of the Department for International Cooperation between January and April that year.

Mr. Diarra has been a member of his country’s delegations at numerous international summits and conferences since 1982 and is the recipient of the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mali award.  He is fluent in French and also speaks English and Bamanan.

Born in 1957, Mr. Diarra holds a master’s degree in public international law and international relations from the University of Dakar.  He has also had further training at the International Development Law Institute from October to December 1985.

He is married and has two children.

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