{"id":14764,"date":"2013-06-06T10:58:13","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T10:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=3cd8622f65f50c2f48366bd7c475e86c"},"modified":"2013-06-06T10:58:13","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T10:58:13","slug":"news-story-change-of-her-majestys-ambassador-to-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=14764","title":{"rendered":"News story: Change of Her Majesty\u2019s Ambassador to Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

He will succeed Mr Matt Baugh, who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment. Mr Wigan will take up his appointment during June 2013.<\/p>\n

Mr Wigan joined the FCO in 2000 and has worked on several countries afflicted by conflict, most recently as Her Majesty\u2019s Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo for the last three years. <\/p>\n

On his appointment as Her Majesty\u2019s Ambassador to Somalia, Mr Wigan has said:<\/p>\n

\n

I am delighted and proud to be appointed at this critical moment in Somalia\u2019s history. Somalia has made great political and security progress in recent years, with Al Shabab driven from many major cities, and with a new and legitimate government having taken office.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The UK has played a major role in supporting this progress, demonstrated by the 2013 Somalia Conference in London, chaired jointly by Prime Minister David Cameron and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Many challenges remain, and I look forward to working on them. I also look forward to working in the new British Embassy in Mogadishu, re-opened in April 2013 after being closed for 22 years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Curriculum vitae<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Full name:<\/th>\nDesmond Patrick Neil Wigan (known as Neil)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Married to:<\/td>\nYael Banaji<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Children:<\/td>\nTwo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Dates<\/th>\nPost<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
March 2010 \u2013 Present<\/td>\nKinshasa, Her Majesty\u2019s Ambassador<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
April 2008 \u2013 Dec 2009<\/td>\nCabinet Office, Deputy Director (Middle East, Americas, Africa, Eurasia and East Asia), Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Feb 2006 – April 2008<\/td>\nFCO, Head of Arab Israel and North Africa Group<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Aug 2002 \u2013 Jan 2006<\/td>\nTel Aviv, Head of Political Section<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sep 2000 \u2013 April 2002<\/td>\nFCO, Desk Officer, European Union (Internal) Department<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Further information<\/h2>\n

UK and Somalia<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow the Foreign Office on twitter @foreignoffice<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow the Foreign Office on facebook<\/a> and Google+<\/a><\/p>\n

Subscribe to the announcements feed<\/a> or email alerts<\/a> to get our latest news and announcements<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr Neil Wigan has been appointed Her Majesty’s non-resident Ambassador to Somalia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}