Simone Barenghi is currently Geographic Desk for Benin, Togo and Cabo Verde at the European External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels. Born in 1974, he graduated in 1996 in Political Science at the University of Pisa. From 1999 to 2009, he worked for the United Nations, serving in different missions and agencies (UNDP, UNTAET, UNAMSIL, UNHCR, ONUCI) and in several countries, mostly in Africa (Angola, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, etc.). He also took part in EU and OSCE electoral missions in Africa, Central America, and the Balkans. In 2009, he joined the European Union as officer/Administrator. Since then, he worked as Brussels-based Political Desk for the police missions EUPOL in Congo DRC (2009-2011) and EUCAP in Somalia (2018-2020), as Head of Political Section at the EU Delegation to Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou (2011-2014) and as Political Officer for the Horn of Africa at the EU Delegation to the African Union in Addis Ababa (2014-2017), before eventually joining the EEAS Division for Western Africa.