Five newly appointed ambassadors have recently joined Washington’s diplomatic scene, representing Benin, Burkina Faso, Germany, Liberia and Malaysia.
The longest vacant position was that of Burkina Faso, whose new ambassador Kassoum Coulibaly presented his credentials to President Trump on July 24.
Coulibaly served as the West African nation’s defense minister from 2022 to 2024. A close associate of transitional President Ibrahim Traoré, the new representative said Burkina Faso and the US enjoy excellent bilateral ties despite a surge in violent extremist attacks by offshoots of Islamic State.
“My country has been facing an unprecedented security and humanitarian crisis for a decade which threatens our existence with massacres and a desire to destabilize the region,” Coulibaly told Trump, adding that under Traoré’s leadership, “significant progress has been made” in recapturing lost territory and returning thousands of displaced people to their original villages.
The neighboring country of Benin also confirmed its new envoy last month. Ambassador Agniola Ahouanmenou has replaced Jean-Claude do Rego who held the position since July 2020. Prior to her new post as ambassador, Ahouanmenou was deputy chief of staff to Benin’s foreign minister from 2023 to 2025.
The ambassador earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Canada’s McGill University, as well as a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School and an MBA from Wharton.
On her LinkedIn page, Ahouanmenou said she has one passion in her life: transformation.
“It keeps me up at night,” she wrote. “I either dream of transforming the way governments serve their citizens, or building transformative wellness products and services. I particularly enjoy living life between these two worlds.”
Liberia is the third West African nation to welcome a new ambassador to Washington this past month. Ambassador Al-Hassan Conteh replaces Jeff Gongoer Dowana who held the position since 2022.
A seasoned diplomat, Conteh is Liberia’s former ambassador to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and was also deputy dean of Nigeria’s diplomatic corps, and concurrent ambassador to Benin and Equatorial Guinea.
A lifelong academic, Conteh served as president of the University of Liberia from 2004 to 2008. He has a bachelor’s degree from the university in geography and demography and earned his master’s degree and PhD in demography from the University of Pennsylvania, where he served on the faculty of its African Studies Center.
From the other side of the world, Malaysia’s new ambassador in town is Muhammad Shahrul Ikram bin Yaakob, replacing Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz who departed earlier this year.
Ambassador Shahrul is a longtime diplomat, having began his career in 1988 as assistant secretary in the East Asia division of Malaysia’s foreign ministry, responsible for relations with China, Mongolia and North Korea. His first posting abroad was to Malaysia’s embassy in Beijing from 1991 to 1994, later transferring to Washington as first secretary for economics from 1994 to 1998.
Shahrul then became deputy head of mission at the Malaysian Embassy in Austria, with accreditation to Slovakia and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency from 2002 to 2005.
Later positions included undersecretary of the ministry’s multilateral political division from 2005 to 2007, ambassador to Qatar from 2007 to 2010, director-general of the ASEAN-Malaysia National Secretariat from 2013 to 2016, and secretary-general of the Foreign Ministry from 2019 to 2022.
And Jens Hanefeld returns to Washington to replace Andreas Michaelis, who is retiring from the position of Germany’s ambassador to the US.
A career diplomat and former lobbyist for Volkswagen, Hanefeld was posted to Bulgaria from 1994 to 1997 and Washington from 1997 to 2000. After increasingly senior positions at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin from 2000 to 2009, he came back to Washington as minister and deputy chief of mission from 2009 to 2014.
Hanefeld then took a leave of absence for 10 years, joining VW Group as senior VP for international, European and trade policy. In 2024, he became Germany’s ambassador to Ethiopia and permanent representative to the Addis Ababa-based African Union.
For more details on the new envoys and the complete listing of all foreign ambassadors to the United States, please subscribe to the new 2025 Embassy Directory.
