Nigerian Appointed Commander For S’Sudan UN Mission

Maj-Gen. Moses Obi has been appointed as the Interim Force Commander for the newly created UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

UN diplomats told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in New York that Obi, 55, the former Force Commander of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) has been asked to continue in the same capacity at UNMISS.

A letter to that effect,signed by Alan Ley Roy, head of UN peacekeeping operations, has been communicated to the new Force Commander of UNMISS.

The UNMIS ended its six years of mandated operations on July 9, the same day that South Sudan declared independence, following the January 9, referendum that voted overwhelmingly in favour of secession.

A Security Council resolution establishing the mission had requested the UN Secretary-General to transfer to UNMISS the appropriate functions performed by UNMIS together with the appropriate staff and logistics.

The new mission will consist of up to 7,000 UN peacekeepers and an additional 900 civilian police, according to the terms of the resolution of the UN Security Council.

Prior to his appointment in June 2010 as Force Commander of UNMIS, Obi has served in two previous UN peacekeeping missions, as Platoon Commander in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and as Deputy Sector Commander in the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).

He was also Commanding Officer ECOMOG, Commanding Officer of the Multi-National Joint Task Force Operation in Lake Chad, and Acting Commander of the ECOMOG Ground Task Force in Liberia.

Obi was Battalion Commander in Operation FLUSHOUT and ECOMOG, Sierra Leone and he led the intervention force from Nigeria following rebel invasion of Freetown in January 1999.

The 55-year old Nigerian general who received the Nigerian National Honours Award in 2004 for professional excellence, attended the Armed Forces Command and Staff College and the Nigerian Defence Academy.

He is married and has four children.