The former ambassador of France in Mali will depart next week for a mission in Khartoum. Christian Connan will work on international guarantees that will accompany a future peace treaty between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA). A career diplomat and a longtime scholar of German in a Germany post, he worked in education (1968-79) before attending the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA) and joining the foreign affairs ministry (1982). Two years later, he worked in the defense minister’s office, then was a diplomatic advisor to the military chief-of-staff. Connan was then director of the office of the minister of Francophone affairs (1991-92) and then assistant director to the minister for cooperation and development, Jacques Josselin, until 1998.