Lamora, Christopher John – Republic of Cameroon – July 2021

REPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE

SUBJECT:            Ambassadorial Nomination:  Certificate of Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service Act, Section 304(a)(4)

POST:                  Republic of Cameroon

CANDIDATE:     Christopher John Lamora

Christopher Lamora, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana.  Previously, he was Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Africa and African Security Affairs, during which time he also served as the U.S. representative to the Great Lakes Contact Group.  Prior to that, he was the Director of the Office of Central African Affairs and the Deputy Director of the Office of Economic and Regional Affairs, both in the African Affairs Bureau.  Mr. Lamora has nearly 30 years of Foreign Service experience, 12 of which he has spent focused on African policy, security, and economic development and partnerships.  He has served in three African countries, including Cameroon, and has demonstrated his leadership as the Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires a.i at the fifth-largest U.S. embassy in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in his senior positions in Washington.  All of these combine to make him an excellent candidate to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon.

Mr. Lamora previously served as the Director of the Los Angeles Passport Agency, the Deputy Consular Section Chief in Guatemala City, and Desk Officer for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  He spent a year as a Pearson Fellow in the Washington, D.C. office of Senator Richard Durbin.  Other assignments include two tours in the Consular Affairs Bureau’s Office of Children’s Issues and one as the Consular Affairs Bureau’s press spokesperson.  Overseas he held positions at the U.S. Embassies in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Athens, Greece; Bangui, Central African Republic; and the U.S. Consulate General in Douala, Cameroon.

Mr. Lamora earned his B.S. degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.  He is the recipient of numerous State Department awards.  His foreign languages are French, Spanish, Modern Greek, and Russian.