Afghanistan Peace CampaignThe UN said in a press release that Ratwatte has over 14 years of experience of working on Afghanistan and regional issues.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced on November 7 the appointment of Indrika Ratwatte of Sri Lanka as his new Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan.
The UN said in a press release that Ratwatte has over 14 years of experience of working on Afghanistan and regional issues.
Ratwatte succeeds Ramiz Alakbarov of Azerbaijan, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedicated service.
“Mr. Ratwatte brings over 30 years of experience in humanitarian affairs and protection in complex and crisis settings, including over 14 years of working on Afghanistan and regional issues. His most recent positions have included Director of the UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, where he previously also served as Deputy, and UNHCR Representative in Pakistan,” the press release reads.
“It is expected that a person should be appointed as the UN Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan, who has a high level of knowledge about the humanitarian and economic situation of Afghanistan, and can identify the weaknesses, threats, opportunities, and strengths of this process,” said Shaker Yaqoobi, an economist.
Meanwhile, the deputy ministry of economy, Abdul Latif Nazari, said that they will continue to cooperate with UNAMA to help citizens.
“We will definitely have good relations with the new representative in the humanitarian and development sectors. We try to provide more facilities so that we can help the people of Afghanistan,” Nazari told TOLOnews.
According to the UN, Ramiz Alakbarov of Azerbaijan has 28 years of experience in executive leadership, strategic planning and policymaking, development programming and management, and humanitarian response.
Since 2020, Alakbarov served as Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) where he was also the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator.