Omar Daair has been appointed British High Commissioner to Rwanda to replace Joanne Lomas who has served in the position since 2018. According to a statement by the UK government, Daair will take up his appointment in July 2021, while Lomas will be transferred to “another diplomatic service appointment.” Commenting on his appointment, in a tweet, Omar said that he was “delighted and honored to be given the opportunity to serve as British High Commissioner to Rwanda,” adding that: “I look forward to arriving in beautiful Kigali this summer.” The new appointee has served in different positions including in the Department for International Development (DFID) where he was the Head of Europe Department between 2019 and 2020. He also served in Britain’s Cabinet Office, in 2017, as Senior Policy Adviser and had many roles including national security capabilities review and national security secretariat. If nothing changes, Omar will take office days after the anticipated Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) slated for the week of June 21, this year. The meeting was to have been held in Kigali in June 2020 but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
