On Monday, February 23, 2026, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga was appointed Acting Administrator of the role of Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), a few days after the end of Abdou Abarry's mission.
Mr. Onanga-Anyanga, who has been the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the African Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) since February 2022, has over 30 years of progressive experience at the national, regional, and international levels, with extensive experience at the United Nations, both in conflict-affected areas and at Headquarters.
The Gabonese diplomat headed the United Nations Office in Burundi from June 2012 to the end of 2014. In August 2015, he was appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) before joining the United Nations Office for the Horn of Africa in Kenya, where he spent three years, from 2019 to 2022. He joined the United Nations system in 1998. he served as Coordinator of the UN Headquarters response to the Boko Haram crisis and Chief of Staff to the UN Deputy Secretary-General, after serving as Chief of Staff to the President of the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly and Special Adviser to the Presidents of the sixtieth and sixty-first sessions of the General Assembly.
Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Onanga-Anyanga served as a career diplomat in the Gabonese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He holds a degree in sociology from Omar Bongo University in Libreville and a degree in political science from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.
