United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Bruno Georges Lemarquis of France as his new Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan.  Mr. Lemarquis will also serve as the Humanitarian Coordinator. He succeeds Indrika Ratwatte of Sri Lanka, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedicated service.

Having served since 2022 as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and as Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Lemarquis brings to this position extensive managerial and leadership experience in complex multidimensional settings, development, recovery, humanitarian affairs and peacebuilding.  Previously, he was Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti (2020-2021).

Mr. Lemarquis worked as Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Crisis Bureau, formerly Crisis Response Unit, from 2014 to 2019, as well as in various capacities in UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, from 2009 to 2014.  He carried out several field assignments with UNDP, including in Somalia, Haiti, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Cambodia. Before joining the United Nations in 1992, he worked for an international non-governmental organization in Haiti and Ethiopia.

Mr. Lemarquis holds an engineering degree in tropical agriculture from the Centre National d’Etudes des Régions Chaudes, Montpellier, France. In addition to his native French, he is fluent in English.

__________

* This supersedes Press Release SG/A/2092 of 18 January 2022.