Professional Affiliation

Retired UN Senior Official; Former Ambassador of Sudan to the United States, France, Portugal, Switzerland and the Vatican

Expert Bio

Ambassador Nureldin M. H. Satti is a seasoned diplomat and a retired UN senior official from Sudan. He served as the Principal Deputy SRSG at the United Nations political and peacekeeping missions to Burundi, UNOB and then ONUB, from 2002 to 2006 (He was Acting SRSG from April to December 2006). During which period he actively contributed to the to the implementation of the Arusha Accord for Peace in Burundi, to putting an end to the war in Burundi, organizing the elections in 2005 and to the peaceful transfer of power in that country. He also served as ambassador of Sudan to the United States, France, Portugal, Switzerland and the Vatican as well as Permanent Delegate to UNESCO; and as Minister Plenipotentiary in the embassies of Sudan to Belgium and Chad. 

He has a longstanding experience in mediation, conflict resolution, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and culture of peace through his work on a number of conflict situations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, including Burundi, Chad, the DRC, Libya, Iraq, Rwanda, the Philippines (Mindanao), Somalia, South Sudan, and his own country, Sudan, as well as the broader Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Regions where he represented UNESCO on culture of peace programs and where he worked on mediation and conflict resolution issues, particularly in support of the AU and IGAD. 

Ambassador Satti was a Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center of Washington DC, where he was a Senior Fellow and Distinguished African Scholar (2008-2009) and currently co-chairs the Sudans Working Group at the Center. He also served as Special Advisor with the Humanitarian Dialogue Centre (HD) of Geneva on Sudan issues with particular focus of the National Dialogue in Sudan and humanitarian dialogue in Darfur and with the SPLM-North. He also worked as Senior Regional Advisor to the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) of Helsinki, with special focus on Iraq, the Red-Sea-Horn of Africa and the Lake Chad Basin and providing support to the AU and IGAD on mediation issues. 

Ambassador Satti served as member of the High Council for Peace in the Sudan and was CEO of the National Library of Sudan, and he was awarded the National Order of the Légion d’Honneur by the French Republic and the Medal of Saint Gregory by the Vatican. 

He authored a several articles on issues of Sudanese identity, as well as social and political issues related to Sudan and Africa in general. He authored books in Arabic language on the failures of the Sudanese elite, on his experience in conflict resolution and peacekeeping, on his combat against cancer, on the role of youth in social change in Sudan, as well as on the September 2018 revolution in Sudan. The first parts of his memoirs in Arabic and French have been published recently, the English version is to be published soon. 

Ambassador Satti graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Khartoum in 1969 and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Lyon and a Doctorate in Literature from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1974. He is fluent in Arabic, English and French. 

Previous Terms

Oct 1, 2008 - Mar 1, 2009 "Conflict, Nation Building and the Dynamics of Integration/Disintegration in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa Regions"