New UN envoy arrives today

TAYE-Brook Zerihoun, the UN Secretary-General’s new Special Representative in Cyprus, arrives today, UNFICYP confirmed yesterday.

Zerihoun will arrive in the afternoon on a flight from Vienna.

The new Special Representative was most recently the Secretary-General’s Principal Deputy Special Representative in the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). He has also been serving as Chief UN Mediator for the Darfur Peace Talks since October 2007, in support of the efforts of Special Envoy Jan Eliasson.

Between 1995 and 2003, Zeirhoun served initially as Deputy and then Director of Africa I Division in the Department of Political Affairs with responsibility for the countries of the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes and Southern Africa regions as well as regional organisations. He was then appointed Chairman of the Inter-departmental Task Force for Sudan and served in that capacity until becoming Principal Deputy Special Representative with UNMIS.

Zerihoun completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in New York, and holds a Master of Philosophy degree in comparative politics from Columbia University. He is married and is the father of four children, a son and three daughters.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.