Hizkias Assefa

Hizkias Assefa (1948) is a conflict mediator known widely in Africa for his non-aligned work as a consultant who has mediated in most major conflict situations in sub-Saharan Africa in the past 20 years, as well as in a dozen countries elsewhere.

He is also a professor of conflict studies.

Of Ethiopian origin, he is based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Hizkias Assefa was born in Ethiopia in 1948.

He remained there into his early adulthood and studied law at Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa.

After graduating he worked as a lawyer in Addis Ababa until 1973.

At this point he obtained a student visa for the United States and left Ethiopia to continue his education and to avoid the violence brought about by the military dictatorship known as the Derg.

He received his LLM from Northwestern University in Chicago, his M.A. in economics and his Master's in public management and Ph.D. in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

He is married and has two daughters.

Most of Assefa's work has centered around mediating between warring parties and resolving conflict.

He was one of the founding faculty members in 1994 of the Conflict Transformation Program (now the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding) at Eastern Mennonite University.

He also serves on the global advisory board for Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies In 2008 Assefa was invited to join the mediation team working to stop the post-election violence in Kenya and create a power-sharing government by former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.

Other team members included former president of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa, and the former first lady of Mozambique and of South Africa, Graça Machel.

Assefa was formerly a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, and he has served as a resident scholar in a number of universities including Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. He is currently a professor at Eastern Mennonite University's Summer Peacebuilding Institute at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

He is also the Consulting Director at Peacemakers Trust.

"… if one is allowed to work with the parties step by step and layer by layer, it is possible to get them to meet at a deep level when they recognize the humanity of each other and recognize that their commonalities are much greater than their differences. And based on that they can have the vision, fortitude and mutual tolerance to work towards peace and reconciliation."

A list of Hizkias Assefa's publications:

In 2013-14, he was the mediator in the conflict between the Government of the Republic of South Sudan and an insurgency movement called the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army that led to a two-part peace agreement: a cease fire and cessation of hostilities agreement in January 2014, followed by a comprehensive peace accord in May 2014 which aimed to address the political, economic, social, military and security issues and interests of the warring parties underlying the conflict.

Assefa has worked in over 50 countries.

He is a Senior Special Fellow at the United Nations Institute of Training and Research in Geneva.

He has also been involved as a facilitator in grassroots peacebuilding and reconciliation initiatives in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kenya, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Colombia, and Guatemala.

He has served as a consultant to the United Nations, European Union, and many international and national NGOs and conducted conflict resolution and peacebuilding training seminars and workshops in many parts of the world.