KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed French diplomat Bruno Georges Lemarquis as Deputy Special Representative and Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan, the organization announced on Tuesday.
In a statement, UNAMA stated that Mr. Lemarquis will serve as deputy head of UNAMA and head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan. He succeeds Indrika Ratwatte of Sri Lanka, who has held the position since January 2024.
According to the statement, the veteran diplomat brings more than three decades of leadership experience in complex crisis and post-conflict environments. Most recently, he served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the U.N. Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), where he also acted as Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator.
He previously held senior roles in the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti and served as resident and humanitarian coordinator in Haiti from 2020 to 2021. His field experience includes assignments in Somalia, the Palestinian territories, Cambodia, and Haiti, reflecting a background in complex and multi-layered humanitarian environments.
According to the statement, Lemarquis holds an engineering degree in tropical agriculture from the Centre National d’Etudes des Régions Chaudes.
The appointment comes as Afghanistan continues to face one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. The UN estimates that 21.9 million people — approximately 45% of the population — require humanitarian assistance in 2026, with acute needs driven by widespread poverty, food insecurity, recurrent natural disasters, and severe restrictions on women and girls’ access to education, work, and essential services under Taliban rule.
UNAMA was established in 2002 following the Bonn Agreement to support Afghanistan’s political transition. Its mandate has since broadened to include humanitarian coordination, human rights monitoring, and diplomatic engagement. Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the mission has operated in an increasingly restrictive and complex environment.
The mission’s future remains uncertain after the UN Security Council in March 2026 granted only a three-month extension of its mandate — until June 17, 2026 — instead of the traditional one-year renewal. The short-term rollover, adopted unanimously as Resolution 2818, was pushed by the United States to allow time for a comprehensive review of UNAMA’s effectiveness, role, and costs.
Mr. Lemarquis is expected to assume his new duties in the coming weeks.
