UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed Mr Leonardo Simão of Mozambique as Chairman of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission and his new Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel.
Simão will also head the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).
Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq announced the appointment at a news conference on Tuesday in New York.
Simão succeeds Mr Annadif Khatir Mahamat Saleh.
The secretary-general expressed gratitude to Annadif for his dedication and leadership of UNOWAS and of the Mixed Commission.
Simão brings to this position more than 30 years of experience in public administration and international affairs.
From 2021 to 2022, he was Special Envoy for the Government of Mozambique.
The secretary-general is also appointing Edward (Ted) Chaiban of Lebanon as Assistant Secretary-General to serve as the Deputy Executive Director, Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
He will succeed Fayaz King of Zimbabwe, to whom the Secretary-General and UNICEF are grateful for his dedicated service.
In his most recent role, Mr Chaiban worked as the Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Vaccine Country Readiness and Delivery.
Staying with UNICEF, the Secretary-General is also appointing Kitty van der Heijden of the Netherlands as Assistant Secretary-General to serve as UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director, Partnerships.
She will succeed Charlotte Petri Gornitzka of Sweden, to whom the Secretary-General and UNICEF are grateful for her dedicated service.
van der Heijden has been working as the Director-General for International Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands, since 2019.
