Secretary-General appoints Ms. Kiki Gbeho of Ghana as Special Representative for South Sudan and Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS)

NEW YORK, 10 April 2026 - United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Anita Kiki Gbeho of Ghana as his new Special Representative for South Sudan and Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Ms. Gbeho will succeed the late Nicholas Haysom of South Africa, to whom the Secretary-General is profoundly grateful for his dedication, effective leadership of UNMISS and distinguished service that he rendered to the United Nations in the cause of peace over the course of more than two decades.

Ms. Gbeho brings over 25 years of experience in strategic planning, coordination and management in political, development and humanitarian affairs at United Nations Headquarters and in diverse conflict and post-conflict settings, including Angola, Cambodia, Iraq, Namibia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. Since 2024, she has been serving as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in UNMISS, as well as Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Coordinator in South Sudan. During this time, she has periodically served as Officer-in-Charge.

Prior to that, Ms. Gbeho served as the Deputy Special Representative (Political) of the Secretary-General in the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) from 2021 to 2023, Deputy Joint Special Representative of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) from 2018 to 2020, and as Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Namibia from 2015 to 2018. She was also Chief of Section in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York and Head of Office for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Somalia and South Sudan.

Ms. Gbeho holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences and African Studies from State University New York, USA, and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Ghana, Legon. She is fluent in English.