NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ERITREA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ERITREA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

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

Araya Desta, the new Permanent Representative of Eritrea to the United Nations, today presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Mr. Desta, with some 13 years of experience in foreign affairs and 11 years in relief work, was his country’s ambassador to the Nordic countries with residence in Stockholm, Sweden, from 2002 until the present.  Prior to that, from 1994 to 2001, he was Minister Counsellor of Eritrea’s Embassy in Beijing, China.  From 1993 to 1994, he served as First Secretary and Consul at the Consulate of Eritrea in Ottawa, Canada.

Between 1982 and 1991, Mr. Desta served on the Board of the Eritrean Relief Association in Khartoum, Sudan.  From 1982 to 1993, he was Executive Director and Chair of the Eritrean Relief Association-Canada Board of Directors in Ottawa.

Mr. Desta worked as a Computer Programmer for the Amoco Canada Petroleum Company in Calgary, from 1980 to 1982.  From 1972 to 1976, he was Head of the Meteorological Application Section in the Ethiopian Meteorological Services in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and from 1963 to 1972, he served as Weather Forecaster for the Civil Aviation Administration in Asmara, Eritrea.

Mr. Desta received a Diploma in Weather Forecasting from the Stanmore Meteorological Training Centre in London in 1969.  He earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, in 1980, and a master’s degree in atmospheric physics at the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1985.

Born in 1945 in Senafe, Eritrea, Mr. Desta is married with five children.

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