Djime Djibrine Adoum Ph.D.

Adoum

Djime Djibrine Adoum Ph.D.

1958-2023



Djime D. Adoum, Ph.D., 65, passed away at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC on Friday, December 15, 2023 after a short illness. He was born in a small village, Karal, in the outskirts of Ndjamena, Chad to his late father Adoum Djibrine and late mother Hawa Oumar. He had one brother and three sisters, Mahamat, Fatime, Ache and Danaa, and two half-brothers, Idriss and Adam. He met and married Carol McDaniel Adoum in 1979 and was the loving father of son Zane Oustaz Adoum (wife Amani AlKhalil) and daughter Sophia Amare Adoum.



Up until approximately grade 4, Djime attended the local school in Karal, and then due to lack of further grades in the village was transferred to a boarding school in a larger town. Upon the death of his father, he was put in the care of an uncle in Ndjamena and moved there to continue his schooling. He graduated from high school and went to work for his electrician Uncle Moussa Abkress, who taught him the electrician skills and ultimately received a contract at Care-Tchad. Djime went on to work directly for Care-Tchad. On one assignment in 1979 he traveled with a large team to the south of Chad where they installed granaries in farms and villages, and where Chadian civil war broke out in February and Carol was evacuated by Peace Corps. Djime barely made it back to Ndjamena with his team unharmed. Following this separation, they met in Yaounde, Cameroon and subsequently Djime followed Carol to the U.S. after getting his Chadian passport and a U.S. visa. They were married in October, 1979 in Cumberland, Maryland.



Djime studied English and obtained his high school GED in Washington, DC and they moved to Maryland for Djime's studies to continue at the University of Maryland, where he obtained his B.S. and M.S. in Agronomy and his Ph.D. in Agricultural Extension and Education. During this time he worked several jobs, as well as USAID contracts in developing countries. Towards the end of his Ph.D. the two moved to Chad, Djime with a Care-Tchad contract and Carol with a PC staff contract. Following this assignment, they returned to the U.S. so Djime could finish his Ph.D. dissertation (1992). Djime continued to work on consulting contracts for a variety of NGOs and consulting firms on World Bank, USAID and other developing country activities throughout Africa. In 1993 he was asked by USAID/Chad to be their Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist so the small family (now with Zane as a 1.5 year-old) moved to Chad. Upon of USAID Chad in 1995, they returned to the U.S. where daughter Sophia was born. In the U.S., he conducted numerous new consultancies and in 1998 to 1999 he was named Director of Africa Programs at consulting firm International Business Initiatives, and subsequently performed many consultancies after leaving IBI. In 2001 he was hired by The Mitchell Group as their Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist to USAID. From 2003 to 2010 he worked for USDA as their Strategic Planning and Accountability Specialist. Called by the Chadian President to give back to his country of origin, in 2010 he left the U.S. to become the President's Senior Technical Advisor for Rural Development, and then was appointed Minister of Agriculture for Chad from 2011 to 2013. During this time, he introduced many new programs to streamline the Ministry, direct agricultural technology availability to small rural farmers, and work more closely with local farmer groups to achieve better yield and product quality. Djime was then appointed as the Executive Director of CILSS (Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel) located in Burkina Faso and covering the 8 to 9 nations across the Sahelian area of Africa (2013 to 2020). In his final assignment, he was named High Ambassador to the EU representing the Coalition of the Sahel (Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania) based in Brussels, Belgium where he worked tirelessly to provide coordination and help to these countries in their fight against terrorism, improvement of domestic security, and development, while representing their interests to the EU and other nations. His term ended in January 2023 when he was diagnosed with acute kidney failure and returned to his home in the U.S.



Djime was not only driven by improving the lives of the many with whom he came in touch in work, he also loved his family near and far, and supported their many endeavors personally. In the early years he provided much care-giving of his young family while Carol was working and on travel, he coached his son's soccer team for several years, was an avid fan of his daughter's dance career, and worked hard to provide sustenance and support to his many extended family members in Chad. He mentored and coached several youth groups across the Sahel and engaged in vital discussions with the people of his home village of Karal. For fun, there were many family camping trips and family events at Thanksgiving and Christmas with extended family. He gave of himself tirelessly up until the last minute when news of a kidney transplant offered hope of continued work in this regard, but which ultimately resulted in his death.



His funeral prayers were held on Monday, December 18 at the Diyanet Center of America at 9704 Good Luck Road, Lanham, MD 20706, burial at the Al-Firdaus Memorial Gardens in Frederick, MD following prayers. The family requests those wishing to express sympathy consider making a donation in his honor to Palestinian Children Relief Fund (https://www.pcrf.net/) or Dignity Memorial (https://www.dignitymemorial.com/support-friends-and-family/memorial-trees).