Rabab Fatima arrives in Kabul and takes charge as UNAMA chief

Rabab Fatima, the new Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, has arrived in Kabul and formally assumed her duties as head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the mission announced on Sunday.

Fatima, a career diplomat from Bangladesh, brings more than 30 years of national and international experience. Before this appointment she served as UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. From 2019 to 2022 she was Bangladesh's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, and earlier served as ambassador to Japan.

She succeeds Roza Otunbayeva, who led the mission from 2022 to 2025. According to media reports, Fatima is the second woman in five years to head the UN presence in Afghanistan, and UN sources said her first meeting is expected to be with ا.ا.ا foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

Analysts quoted by the media say her main challenges include the ban on Afghan women working in UN offices, which has been in place for more than a year, the needs of more than 20 million people who require assistance, and political engagement with the authorities in Kabul.

UN sources told the media that Fatima is expected to address, by video, a coordination meeting on Afghanistan in Doha at the end of this week, and to present her first quarterly briefing to the UN Security Council in mid-December.