UN appoints new envoy for redeployment, ceasefire in Hodeidah

SANAA, Sept. 13 (YPA) – The United Nations on Thursday announced that Abhijit Guha, a retired Lieutenant General from the Indian Army, would be the next leader of the UN observer mission in Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

Mr Guha succeeds Lt Gen Michael Lollesgaard, of Denmark, becoming the third official tasked with leading UN oversight of a ceasefire agreement in Hodeidah after the truce,  which does not apply to the rest of the country, went into effect last December after peace talks in Sweden.

A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said of Mr Guha’s appointment: “The Secretary General is grateful for General Lollesgaard’s dedicated and exemplary service and Mr. Guha was among many active or retired military officers under consideration as an alternative to this task as Chairman of the Redeployment Commission in collaboration with UN envoy to Yemen Griffiths.

Mr Guha served from 2009 to 2013 as the deputy military adviser and the military adviser within the Office of Military Affairs of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, also establishing the Office of Peacekeeping and Strategic Partnerships in 2013.

Previously he held a number of significant command, staff and instructional appointments within the Indian Army including leadership of an Infantry Brigade and Infantry Division.

After his retirement from the Indian Army in 2013, Mr Guha served on the Expert Panel on Technology and Innovation in UN Peacekeeping (2014) and the High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (2015).

He has also led a number of UN investigations and boards of inquiry in Africa and the Middle East.