United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday appointed Pekka Haavisto of Finland as his new Personal Envoy for Sudan.
Haavisto succeeds Ramtane Lamamra of Algeria, whom Guterres thanked for his dedication to peace efforts in Sudan.
Haavisto brings more than 40 years of experience in politics and international affairs. He has held multiple ministerial positions in the Finnish government, served in senior roles with the European Union and the United Nations, and is currently a member of the Finnish Parliament.
From 2019 to 2023, Haavisto was Finland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. He previously led the European Institute of Peace from 2016 to 2019 and held ministerial posts covering Development Cooperation, State Ownership, and the Environment. He was first elected to Parliament in 1987.
Haavisto has extensive experience in mediation and negotiation in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, as well as with U.N. operations. Between 2005 and 2007, he served as the European Union’s Special Representative for Sudan and participated in the Darfur peace negotiations.
He also acted as a U.N. senior advisor to the Darfur peace process. From 2009 to 2017, he was Special Representative to the Finnish Foreign Minister for mediation and crisis management in Africa.
Earlier in his career, Haavisto worked with the U.N. Environment Programme from 1999 to 2005 in countries including Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Liberia, and Sudan. He speaks Finnish, Swedish, and English.
Sudan remains locked in an almost three‑year power struggle between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, forced more than 13 million people from their homes and sparked widespread famine.