Secretary-General Appoints Lieutenant General Ricardo Augusto Ferreira Costa Neves of Brazil Force Commander for Democratic Republic of Congo Stabilization Mission

United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Lieutenant General Ricardo Augusto Ferreira Costa Neves of Brazil as Force Commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).  He succeeds Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho of Brazil, who completed his assignment on 31 October 2019, to whom the Secretary‑General is grateful for his dedicated leadership as head of MONUSCO’s military component.

Currently Director of Evaluation and Promotion at the Brazilian Army Command since the end of 2018, Lieutenant General Costa Neves has had a distinguished military career with the Brazilian Armed Forces spanning more than 30 years, including as a military academy commander, where he was responsible for the training and education of young officers.  Earlier in his career, he served as the seventeenth Jungle Infantry Brigade Commander from 2015 to 2017, as well as the sixty‑second Infantry Battalion Commander from 2008 to 2010.

Lieutenant General Costa Neves also has prior peacekeeping experience, having served as a military observer in the United Nations Angola Verification Mission III from 1995 to 1996.

Lieutenant General Costa Neves graduated from the Escola Superior de Guerra Defense War College of Brazil.