UN Secretary-General appoints Bruno Lemarquis as UN Chief in Afghanistan

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Bruno Georges Lemarquis as his new Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Lemarquis will also serve as the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan, taking over from Indrika Ratwatte of Sri Lanka. The Secretary-General thanked Ratwatte for his dedicated service.

The appointment places Lemarquis in one of the United Nations’ most important regional roles, overseeing humanitarian coordination, development efforts and political engagement in Afghanistan.

Lemarquis brings extensive international experience in crisis management, peacebuilding and humanitarian operations. Since 2022, he has served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), where he also held the roles of Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator.

He previously served in similar senior positions in Haiti with the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) between 2020 and 2021.

Earlier in his career, Lemarquis worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in several leadership roles focused on crisis response, recovery and conflict prevention. His field assignments included work in Somalia, Haiti, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Cambodia.

Before joining the United Nations in 1992, he worked with an international non-governmental organization in Haiti and Ethiopia.

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