François Lonseny Fall

François Lonseny Fall (born 1949) is a Guinean diplomat and politician. He briefly served as Prime Minister of Guinea from February 23, 2004 to April 30, 2004, under President Lansana Conté. Later, under President Alpha Condé, he was Secretary-General of the Presidency from December 2010 to October 2012 and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from October 2012 to January 2016.

Career

Fall received a master's degree in law from the University of Conakry in 1976 and was Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the same university from 1977 to 1979. He then began a diplomatic career, holding diplomatic posts in Paris, New York City, Lagos, Cairo, and Conakry from 1982 to 1990; he was Director of the Department of Legal and Consular Affairs at the Guinean Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2000.^[1]

Fall was Guinea's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2000 to 2002. In 2000, he was Vice-President of the Fifty-Fifth Session of the United Nations General Assembly. From 2000 to 2002, he was a member of the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.^[1] He was then appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs on June 10, 2002. As Foreign Minister, he was Guinea's delegate to the United Nations security council during the debate over the United States military action in Iraq, and he acted as President of the United Nations Security Council in March 2003.^[1][2] He was also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Ministerial Committee for Security and Mediation from 2002 to 2004.

He was appointed as Prime Minister on February 23, 2004.^[3] After only two months, Fall resigned as Prime Minister on April 30, saying that President Lansana Conté would not let him attempt to fix the economy. He was not replaced as Prime Minister until December 2004, and until June 2004 there was some dispute as to whether he had actually left office formally.

In May 2005, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Fall to be his Special Representative for Somalia.^[1] In that capacity, Fall also assumed charge of the UN's Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), located in Nairobi, Kenya. From the date of his appointment through mid-2005, Fall's principal task was to persuade and assist rival Somali warlords to lay down their weapons, resolve their differences, and restore national government to a country that had not had one since 1992.

Lonseny Fall was a minor candidate in the first round of the 2010 presidential election. He then supported Alpha Condé in the second round. Condé won in the second round; shortly after he was sworn in as President, he appointed Lonseny Fall as Secretary-General of the Presidency on 23 December 2010.^[4] Lonseny Fall served in that post for nearly two years; he was then appointed to the government as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Guineans Abroad on 5 October 2012.^[5]

References

1. "François Lonseny Fall appointed Special Representative of Secretary-General for Somalia", UN Press Release, SG/A/919, AFR/1151, BIO/3655, May 3, 2005.
2. "Presidents of the Security Council : 2000–", United Nations website.
3. "Remaniement ministériel en deux temps, et nouveau Premier ministre", Afrique Express, number 289, March 9, 2004 (French).
4. "Le président guinéen nomme deux fidèles à des postes stratégiques", RFI, 24 December 2010 (French).
5. "Guinée: liste du nouveau gouvernement formé le vendredi 05 octobre 2012", Ouestaf.com, 8 October 2012 (French).