New Extraordinary, Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the United States to the Republic of Chad Alexander Laskaris
N’Djamena, CHAD— The newly arrived U.S. Ambassador to Chad, Alexander Laskaris, met with the Transition Military Council’s (TMC) president Mahatmat Idriss Deby Itno on August 19, 2022, to present his credentials and to start his tenure in Chad. Ambassador Laskaris indicated his enthusiasm for partnering with the Chadian people, stating, ‘’ “I am honored to be here, and I look forward to getting to know the people of Chad in their rich diversity.”
Ambassador Laskaris first came to Africa in 1989 an English and Mathematics teacher at a high school in the South African township of Galeshewe and over the following two years he was a witness to a peaceful and democratic transition from apartheid to majority rule. Upon joining the State Department in 1991, Ambassador Laskaris chose to specialize in African affairs, with postings in Liberia, Botswana, Angola, Burundi and Guinea, where he served as Ambassador from 2012 to 2015. He has also worked on African peace, security, and development from the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the State Department, and United States Africa Command. Outside of Africa, Ambassador Laskaris has worked in Kosovo and northern Iraq. Since 2019, he has been a professor at the National War College in Washington DC, where he served as the academic advisor to 20 African students.
Ambassador Laskaris has a longstanding commitment to conflict resolution and humanitarian assistance, which is based on his own experience and that of his family. He is the son and grandson of refugees, and his late father came to the United States as a war-displaced minor following World War II and the Greek civil war. His family history led him to make the following remarks in his testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
Chad and its people have been superb hosts to refugees from Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Cameroon. The people have welcomed their brothers and sisters fleeing violence, and the government has ensured that humanitarian assistance from the international community, led by the United States, has reached its intended beneficiaries.