Head of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) Malik Mahmud (R) is escorted by a mediator and chief of the Henry Dunant Center Martin Griffiths (L).

:: Sources in New York revealed that the UN appointed senior international mediator Martin Griffiths as the new envoy to Yemen.

UN Yemen mediator Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will step down when his current contract finishes at the end of February after nearly three years in the job, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday.

“In this moment, his thoughts go first to the Yemeni people who are worn out by this conflict and are enduring one of the most devastating humanitarian crisis in the world,” Dujarric said.

The United Nations appointed Ould Cheikh Ahmed as an international envoy on April 25, 2015, replacing Gamal Benemar, who resigned following the failure of efforts to end the conflict triggered by the coup of the pro-Iranian Houthi militias.

Griffiths was the founding Director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva (HD Centre) where he specialized in developing political dialogue between governments and insurgents in a range of countries across Asia, Africa and Europe, according to European Institute of Peace.

He also served as Deputy to the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator in New York and as the UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Great Lakes and in the Balkans with the rank of UN Assistant Secretary-General.

Martin Griffiths.