The appointment of Ghana’s Anita Kiki Gbeho as the new Deputy Special Representative and Resident Coordinator in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) was announced by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday, December 8.

The Humanitarian Coordinator role will be held by Ms. Gbeho.

The Secretary-General is thankful to Ms. Gbeho for taking over for Sara Beysolow Nyanti of Liberia, who served with commitment and dignity.

With over 25 years of experience, Ms. Gbeho has worked in political, development, and humanitarian affairs at the UN headquarters as well as in a variety of conflict and post-conflict environments, such as Angola, Cambodia, Iraq, Namibia, Somalia, and Sudan.

Since 2021, she has been assigned to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) as the Deputy Special Representative (Political) of the Secretary-General. In this role, she supports the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in helping Somalia meet its goals for peace and statebuilding.

Before that, Ms. Gbeho headed the creation and execution of the mission’s transition plan while serving as the Deputy Joint Special Representative of the United Nations-African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) from 2018 to 2020.

She worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Namibia as a resident representative and coordinator from 2015 to 2018.

She has also held positions as Head of Office for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in South Sudan and Somalia, as well as Chief of Section in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York.

Ms. Gbeho graduated from the University of Ghana in Legon, Ghana, with a master’s degree in international relations.