Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of three Special Representatives and two Deputy Special Representatives to act for him in four African countries trying to recover from prolonged war or insecurity - Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Liberia.

UN spokesperson Michele Montas said that Mr. Ban had informed the Security Council of his intention to make the appointments and expected a response from the 15-member body shortly.

He has chosen Ellen Margrethe Løj, who most recently served as Denmark's Permanent Representative to the UN, to serve as Special Representative for Liberia, replacing Alan Doss of the United Kingdom.

Mr. Doss will replace William Lacy Swing of the United States as the Special Representative to the DRC, where the UN peacekeeping mission known as MONUC is based.

Choi Young-jin, formerly the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the UN, will become the Special Representative to Côte d'Ivoire, replacing Pierre Schori of Sweden.

Guinea's Bintou Keita is becoming a Deputy Special Representative in Burundi and Senegal's Bacre Waly Ndiaye is being appointed to a post at the same level in the DRC under Mr. Doss.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ban has also appointed Jan Beagle of New Zealand, who had been Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management since October 2005, as Deputy Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG).

Ms. Beagle is tasked with strengthening the overall management capacity and coordination among the Secretariat's organizations in Geneva, tackling current managerial challenges and enhancing the role of the UN in Geneva in advancing system-wide coherence.