Diego Nuño García, new special ambassador for the Sahel, replacing Alberto Cerezo, “recruited” by Kaja Kallas

Eduardo González The Council of Ministers appointed Diego Nuño García as ambassador on Special Mission for the Sahel this Tuesday, March 10. He replaces Alberto Cerezo, who had held the same position since January 2025 and whom the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas, appointed as EU ambassador to Mali last January. A law graduate and member of the diplomatic corps since 2000, Nuño García has served as deputy director general for Migration Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, deputy director general for International Relations, Immigration and Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of the Interior, and deputy director general for Multilateral and Horizontal Affairs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Abroad, he has served as Secretary in charge of Consular Affairs at the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala and as Cultural Attaché at the Spanish Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia. He has also been Consul General in Oran, Algeria, Secretary at the Permanent Mission to NATO, and Coordinator at the Permanent Representation to the European Union. In August 2022, he was appointed Spanish Ambassador to Honduras, where he will be replaced by Guillermo Escribano. The Sahel The Sahel is one of the main concerns of Pedro Sánchez's government in terms of foreign and security policy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' 2025-2028 Foreign Action Strategy includes among its objectives support for security and governance in the Sahel and considers "the stability of the corridor extending from the Gulf of Guinea to the Red Sea as a geostrategic interest of paramount importance." For its part, the Spain-Africa Strategy 2025-2028, also from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, warns that in the Sahel, the climatic and geographical transition zone south of the Sahara Desert, “the major challenges facing the continent are concentrated to a greater extent and with greater intensity than in any other African region.” With a young population, vast natural resources, and a rich cultural heritage, the Sahel (comprising Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Chad) suffers from severe instability, with the consequent humanitarian repercussions, due to the convergence of terrorism (43 percent of terrorist attacks worldwide occur in the Sahel, perpetrated by groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State), criminal and human trafficking networks, coups d'état, and climate change. All of this has resulted in increased migratory pressure on Spain and Europe. The Sahel region has also become fertile ground for external powers, such as Russia. This situation makes the region a “real threat” to our country and to Europe, which is why the Spanish government has reiterated to NATO the need to reinforce the Southern Flank, especially the Sahel. To try to mitigate this situation, Spain has participated in European institutional strengthening projects and in the Sahel Alliance, the main platform for coordinating cooperation actors in the region, whose general assembly our country chaired for three consecutive years, between June 2020 and July 2023. Furthermore, the 2023 Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development establishes West Africa and the Sahel as a priority for Spanish Cooperation.

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