Juba – The International Organization for Migration, (IOM) Regional Director for the East and Horn of Africa, Mr. Mohammed Abdiker, has arrived in Juba, South Sudan on a six-day visit.

During his trip Mr. Abdiker is scheduled to meet with government officials, international donors, and the United Nations Country Team.

Mr. Abdiker will also visit Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal to assess IOM’s humanitarian response in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, including the Naivasha IDPs camp, and surrounding communities, as well as visit transition and recovery activities implemented by IOM for communities and returnees.

There are more than 1.7 million IDPs in South Sudan living in Protection of Civilians (PoC) site, IDP camps and in host communities. IOM’s main activities and assistance in the country includes providing water, sanitation and hygiene services, lifesaving and life sustaining shelter and Non-Food Items through in-kind distributions, cash-based interventions, health services conducted through static facilities, outreach/mobile clinics, and Rapid Response Teams. IOM also works closely with the Government of South Sudan in supporting efforts to strengthen migration management, prevent transnational organized crime, mitigate the risk of public risks and improve migrant protection through capacity building at institutional, individual and societal level and policy development.

IOM seeks to work closely with authorities in the country to deliver programs across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus through an integrated, multi-sectoral approach whereby governance, migration management, and transition, recovery, and stabilization efforts complement humanitarian interventions across the country.

Before departing Mr. Abdiker will brief journalists in the capital Juba on Friday, 25 June.

For more information, please contact: Liatile Putsoa at IOM South Sudan, Tel: +211 912 380 104, Email: lputsoa@iom.int 

Biography

Mohammed Abdiker assumed his role as Regional Director for East and Horn of Africa at International Organization for Migration in Nairobi, Kenya on 1 August 2019.

As the Regional Director, Mohammed reports directly to the Director General and represents the Director General vis-à-vis institutions of a regional character within and outside the United Nations systems. He liaises closely with Departmental Directors and IOM’s Senior Regional Adviser for Africa and is a member of IOM’s global Policy Coordination Committee. Mohammed directs and supervises the Heads of IOM’s Country Offices in the region.

He leads the Organization’s formulation, promotion and implementation of strategic responses to migration issues and trends in support of Member States and migrants in the region. IOM’s Regional Office for the East and Horn of Africa covers Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Mohammed brings a wealth of experience to the East and Horn of Africa Region, with over 20 years of experience on a range of migration issues in crisis and post crisis settings. Most recently, Mohammed led IOM’s world-wide response to migration crises as the Director of Operations and Emergencies at Headquarters in Geneva for the past 9 years. Under his leadership, the Organization saw a major expansion both in scope and reach of its programmes, covering humanitarian, transition and recovery, and resettlement portfolios, as well as support for land, property and reparations and other dimensions of transitional justice. Mohammed oversaw advances of IOM’s policy and technical expertise, through the introduction of new frameworks to guide its field interventions, to navigate and respond to the evolving nature of crises and to global commitments. He began his rich professional career with IOM in 1996, working on refugee resettlement and cultural orientation programmes in Kenya and has served as Chief of Mission in Sri Lanka (2007- 2010) and the Chief of Mission in Zimbabwe (2003-2007); as well as covering the return and resettlement of refugees for IOM offices in Ethiopia, Kenya, and West Africa. He has also focused extensively on IOM’s Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration programming. Mohammed is based with his family in Nairobi, Kenya.