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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Bangladeshi diplomat Rabab Fatima as the new head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and his Special Representative for Afghanistan.
The appointment was announced on Wednesday in a statement issued by the UN spokesperson’s office, according to Anadolu Agency. Fatima succeeds Roza Otunbayeva of Kyrgyzstan, whose dedicated service was praised by Guterres. The UN chief also thanked Georgette Gagnon of Canada, who has been serving as acting head and deputy chief of UNAMA.
Rabab Fatima brings more than 30 years of experience in diplomacy and international public administration to the role.
She currently serves as the UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.
The UN said her extensive career spans bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, policymaking, advocacy, programme planning and implementation at both national and international levels.
Before assuming her current position, Fatima served as Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 2019 to 2022.
During her tenure, she chaired the Executive Boards of UNICEF and UN Women. In 2022, she also became the first woman elected Chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission and served as Vice-President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
