UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to seek the consent of the UN Security Council for the replacement of UN special representative and head of the peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp) Colin Stewart.

Guterres will propose Senegalese diplomat Khassim Diagne, who until now serves as the UN’s deputy coordinator for humanitarian affairs in Mali, take over from Stewart, who gave his final briefing to the council in July.

The Republic of Cyprus, has already approved of Guterres’ proposal.

UN sources told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) that Diagne was an experienced diplomat. He specialises in refugee protection, political affairs, mission management and supervision.

In the past, Diagne has served as UN’s regional director for West Africa and the Sahel zone, as well as the UN’s special representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), where he was responsible for protection and operations issues.

Diagne having been put forward as the UN’s new special representative in Cyprus first surfaced on August 13, when diplomatic sources informed the Cyprus Mail that Diagne was the person about whom government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis was speaking in an announcement on August 10.

In July, Colin Stewart gave his final briefing to the UN Security Council before returning to the island to say his farewells ahead of his retirement. In his final statement, he expressed hope that the Cyprus problem could be solved.