Ban appoints Senegal’s Abdoulaye Bathily to head UN regional office in Central Africa

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Abdoulaye Bathily of Senegal as the head of the United Nations political office tasked with helping to consolidate peace and prevent conflict in the Central African region.

Mr. Bathily, who brings to this position many years of political, diplomatic and academic experience with his national Government, academic institutions and more recently with the UN system, will serve both as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Central Africa and the head of the UN regional office, known as UNOCA.

He succeeds Abou Moussa of Chad, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for “his leadership and important accomplishments” during his tenure at UNOCA, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

Most recently, Mr. Bathily served as the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) since July 2013.

Headquartered in Libreville, Gabon, UNOCA has been working since March 2011 to support the efforts of Central African nations to consolidate peace and prevent conflict, as well as to tackle cross-border challenges such as arms trafficking and organized crime.

It works closely with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), which comprises Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe.