Ambassador Francisco Caetano José Madeira is currently a member of the African Union High Level Panel on Sudan. He was the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia and Head of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM/ATMIS) until June 2022.  Ambassador Madeira has vast experience in Mediation and Counter-Terrorism, and has served as the AU Special Representative for Counter-Terrorism Cooperation and Director of the Algiers-based African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT), a post he held concurrently with that of Special Envoy for the issue of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), from November 2011 to July 2014.As Special Envoy of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission to the Comoros, he led the negotiation process that produced the Fomboni Agreement which stabilized the political situation, gave a new name to the country -UNION OF THE COMOROS-, produced a new constitution and a new Comorian national flag. He was also Member of former Presidents Julius Nyerere and Nelson Mandela facilitation teams in the 1996-2000 Arusha Peace Negotiations on Burundi which put an end to the civil war in that country; Equally, he was Member of the Southern Sudan Vice-President Riak Machar’s facilitation team in the negotiations with the Lord’s Resistance Army   of Joseph Kony. A Mozambican national, Ambassador Madeira begun his career when he joined the Mozambique Diplomatic service in 1975, dealing mostly with African Affairs, both at the OAU level (OAU Liberation Committee, Anti-Apartheid Movements, the Frontline States and SADC) and at the UN level (Fourth Committee on Decolonization). . Amb. Madeira has served as Ambassador of Mozambique to Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana and as diplomatic advisor to the president of Mozambique. He was  a member of the Government delegation to the peace negotiations with RENAMO, which resulted in the signing of the August 1992 Rome General Peace Agreement for Mozambique, putting  an end to the  country’s 15 year long civil war.  Amb Madeira has held ministerial portfolios, having been, from 1995 to 1999, Minister in the President’s Office for Parliamentary Affairs and, from 2000 to 2010, Minister in the President’s Office for Diplomatic Affairs.  He has contributed to several other peace processes on the continent. In particular, he was the Special Representative of the Mozambican Government to the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and the Great Lakes Region, following the political and military turmoil that erupted in the region in the aftermath of the demise of presidents Mobutu and Kabila Senior