Ambassador Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira is the Special Representative of the African Union Commission Chairperson (SRCC) for Somalia and head of mission. He assumed office in Somalia on 4 December 2015.
Ambassador Francisco Madeira was born on 4 April 1954 in Beira, Mozambique.
Ambassador Madeira has vast experience in diplomacy, counter-terrorism, peace and security and reconciliation initiatives.
He previously served as Africa Union Special Representative for Counter-Terrorism Co-operation. He also served as Director of the Algiers-based African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT), a post he held alongside serving as Special Envoy for the issue of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) from November 2011 to July 2014.
He served as Ambassador of Mozambique to several African countries from 1984 to 1989 and as a diplomatic advisor to the Presidency.
He was a member of the Government delegation to the peace negotiations with RENAMO, which resulted in the August 1992 Rome General Peace Agreement for Mozambique.
From 1995 to 1999, he was Minister in the President’s Office for Parliamentary Affairs and, from 2000 to 2010, he served as Minister in the President’s Office for Diplomatic Affairs.
Ambassador Madeira has contributed to several peace processes on the continent. In particular, he was the Special Representative of the Mozambique Government to the Great Lakes Region; member of former Presidents Julius Nyerere and Nelson Mandela’s facilitation teams in the Arusha Peace Negotiations on Burundi (1997 to 2000); Special Envoy of the AU Chairperson (former President Joachim Chissano of Mozambique) to Sao Tome and Principe, following the July 2003 coup d’état; member of the Southern Sudan facilitation team in the negotiations with the LRA; and OAU/AU Special Envoy for Comoros (1999 to 2010).
He has a degree in law from the University of Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique. He also holds a Diploma in International Relations from the Centre for Foreign Relations in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania.
He was a member of the National Parliament of Mozambique from January 2005 to January 2010.