Bintou Keita | |
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 | |
| Born | 1958 (age 66–67) |
| Nationality | Guinea |
| Employer | United Nations |
| Known for | UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Bintou Keita (born 1958) is a Guinean United Nations diplomat. She is an expert in conflict resolution, and has been the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2021.
Keita was born in Guinea in 1958. Her education included a degree in Social Economy from the University of Paris. She went to the Paris Dauphine University to obtain her master's degree in business administration and management. [1]
She began working for the United Nations in 1989. [1]
In 2018 she left her job as Deputy Joint Special Envoy for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). Her old role was taken by Anita Kiki Gbeho. [2]
In 2019, Keita became the Assistant Secretary-General for Africa. [1] She gave an interview where she spoke about the advantages of increasing the number of women in the military. Her father was in the military and he had encouraged her to join. Now she observing the military engaged in Africa and she noted that there were situations where women or a mixed team could perform tasks that would nearly defeat a force made up only of men. At present women only make up 5% of uniformed personnel. [3]
In January 2021, she was appointed to lead the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo MONUSCO and to be the UN Secretary General's Special Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [1] She succeeded the Algerian UN official Leila Zerrougui. [4] In April she issued a statement to the press. While accepting that people had the right to criticise MONUSCO she felt that some of the points were unfair. She wrote that "relationship between the United Nations and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is of an intensity and complexity that I have rarely seen elsewhere." [5]
In March 2023 she spoke to rally local support for the MONUSCO mission. 600,000 people had been effected by violence and MONUSCO was seen to be ineffective. [6]
On 2 to 4 May 2023 there was flooding in the Kalehe Territory that destroyed 5,000 homes and killed about 400 people. The World Food Programme was aware that there were over 100,000 internally displaced people and 50,000 people were expected to need assistance. [7] Keita visited the area that month seeing the survivors and the damaged area. [8]
The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or MONUSCO, is a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A planned withdrawal from the country is currently on indefinite hold due to the unstable security situation.
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Diene Keita is a former Minister for Cooperation and Africa Integration for Guinea. In June 2020, she was appointed deputy executive director for programmes, United Nations Population Fund, by Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres. She has held leadership roles in United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), serving in several countries which includes; United States of America, Niger, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Haiti, Senegal, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nigeria.
Anita Kiki Gbeho is a Ghanaian United Nations official who is the Deputy Special Representative in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan and Resident Coordinator in South Sudan since 8 December 2023.
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Major Radhika Sen is an Indian Army officer known for her impactful service with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Born in Himachal Pradesh in 1993, she joined the army. As engagement platoon commander in MONUSCO, she led efforts to support community security, gender equality, and education for local populations. Her work earned her the 2024 United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres commending her as a “true leader and role model.”
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