Veteran Minister and diplomat appointed as Joint Special Representative for Darfur

Rwandan politician and diplomat Joseph Mutaboba has been appointed as the new African Union and United Nations Deputy Joint Special Representative in Darfur and Deputy Head of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (Unamid). Mutatoba, whose appointment was announced by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, on Thursday, served until January this year as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Guinea-Bissau and Head of the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS). He previously served as the Rwandan President’s Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, as Secretary-General in his country’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Internal Affairs, and has held several senior positions as the Deputy National Coordinator for Rwanda, the Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1999 to 2001 and as a senior diplomat in Addis Ababa and Washington DC. Mutaboba replaces Aichatou Mindaoudou of Niger, who was appointed last month as special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Côte d’Ivoire and Head of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI).File photo: Joseph Mutaboba (UN)