UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced on Tuesday 22 February the appointment of Parfait Onanga-Anyanga of Gabon as his Special Representative to the African Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOWA). He succeeds Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of Ghana, who has been appointed UN envoy for the Horn of Africa.
Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, says the UN, brings with him 25 years of experience in increasingly senior roles at the national, regional and international levels, both in conflict-affected areas and at UN Headquarters. “He brings to his new position proven skills in consensus-building among stakeholders as well as a thorough knowledge of the United Nations in order to strengthen partnerships between the Organization and the African Union in the area of peace and security,” the UN said.
The new Special Representative was, since 2019, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa. Prior to that, he was Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). He was also coordinator of the UN headquarters response to the Boko Haram crisis, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Burundi and head of the UN office in the country.
Rich career at the United Nations
Between 1998 and 2004, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga held several political and leadership positions in Vienna and New York in the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation.
From 2007 to 2012, he served as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, after having been Chief of Staff to the President of the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly and Special Adviser to the Presidents of the sixtieth and sixty-first sessions of the General Assembly.
Before joining the United Nations, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga was a diplomat in the Gabonese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ending his career with the rank of ambassador. Earlier in his career, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga was Acting Secretary of the Permanent Consultative Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa and First Counsellor for Political and Disarmament Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Gabon to the United Nations in New York.
Parfait Onanga-Anyanga holds a postgraduate degree in political science from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Omar Bongo in Libreville, Gabon. He is fluent in English and French.
Born in 1960, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga is married and has three children.
