Finnish Diplomat Appointed New UN Envoy to Sudan

Moatinoon
Announced today, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, has appointed Finnish diplomat Pekka Haavisto as his new Personal Envoy to Sudan, succeeding Algerian diplomat Ramtane Lamamra.

Haavisto brings more than four decades of experience in politics and international affairs. He has held several ministerial posts in the government of Finland, as well as senior positions within the European Union and the United Nations. He is currently a member of the Finnish Parliament.

He served as Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2023. Before that, he was Chair of the European Institute of Peace between 2016 and 2019. He has also held ministerial portfolios covering development cooperation, state ownership, and the environment. Haavisto was first elected to parliament in 1987.

The new envoy has extensive experience related to Sudan. In the early 2000s, he served as the European Union’s Special Representative for Sudan and took part in Darfur peace negotiations, while also acting as a senior adviser to the United Nations on the Darfur peace process.

Between 2009 and 2017, he served as Special Representative of Finland’s Foreign Minister for mediation and crisis management in Africa. From 2005 to 2007, he again worked as EU Special Representative for Sudan and participated in Darfur peace talks, while simultaneously serving as a senior UN adviser on the same process.

Haavisto also worked with the United Nations Environment Programme from 1999 to 2005, with assignments in Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Liberia, and Sudan. In addition to his native Finnish, he is fluent in Swedish and English.