Secretary-General Appoints Parfait Onanga-Anyanga of Gabon Acting Special Representative in Central African Republic

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Parfait Onanga-Anyanga of Gabon as his Acting Special Representative for the Central African Republic and Head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

Mr. Onanga-Anyanga succeeds Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye of Senegal, who resigned on 12 August.  The Secretary-General is grateful for Lieutenant General Gaye’s long and distinguished record of public service in the United Nations, most recently over the past two years, during a critical period in the Central African Republic.

Mr. Onanga-Anyanga brings with him several years of experience with the United Nations in conflict-affected areas, including as Head of the United Nations Office in Burundi (BNUB), having served most recently as the Assistant-Secretary-General, System-Wide Senior Coordinator on Burundi in addition to his role as the Coordinator of United Nations Headquarters Response to the Boko Haram crisis.

From 2007 to 2012, he was the Director of the Office of the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General.  Previously, Mr. Onanga-Anyanga was Special Adviser to the President of the sixtieth and sixty-first sessions of the General Assembly (2005-2007).  Prior to that, he was Chef de Cabinet to the President of the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly.

From 1998 to 2004, he held a variety of political and managerial positions at the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna and New York.  Earlier in his career, he was acting Secretary of the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee for Security Questions in Central Africa and served as First Counsellor for Disarmament and Political Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Gabon to the United Nations in New York.

Mr. Onanga-Anyanga holds a post-graduate degree in political science from l’Université Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, and a master’s degree in sociology from l’Université Omar Bongo in Libreville.

Born in 1960, he is married with three children.

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1350-AFR/2401-BIO/4374 of 7 June 2012.