Kenya was seething. In the spring of 2015, its leaders complained that a wave of terrorist attacks had been planned in a refugee camp for Somalis. Shut it down, Kenya demanded of the United Nations refugee agency — or we will shut it down for you and send the Somalis packing.
The man in charge of protecting the world’s refugees at the time, António Guterres, shuttled from his headquarters in Geneva to Mogadishu to meet with the Somali president, to Nairobi to meet with the Kenyan president, and on to the refugee camp, Dadaab.
His diplomacy led to a deal to keep the camp open, send home only those Somalis who wanted to return, and rally more international aid for Somalia and Kenya.
It was not a perfect deal, said Bill Frelick, the refugees expert at Human Rights Watch, but Mr. Guterres contained a potentially explosive situation — at least for a while.
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“He was managing a very politicized situation with a lot of raw nerves,” he said.
Many raw-nerve reckonings are sure to confront Mr. Guterres when he takes over as the United Nations secretary general in January. The 15-member Security Council picked him last week, and the General Assembly was expected to approve the choice on Thursday.