Rwandan diplomat, Amb Joseph Mutaboba, was on Thursday appointed as AU and UN Deputy Joint Special Representative in Darfur, by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Mutaboba will replace Aichatou Mindaoudou from Niger on the post that also entails being Deputy Head of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation (Unamid).

He is the immediate former UN Special Envoy to Guinea Bissau and previously, he served as President Paul Kagame’s Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, among other duties in central government.

He holds a Master of Philosophy degree in librarian and information science from North London University. He speaks English and French, and has a working knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Born in 1949, he is married with three children.