By Gloria Nakiyimba
Joel Boutroue has been appointed the new United Nations High commission for Refugees representative in Uganda. Mr. Joël Boutroue a French national who is already in the country replaces Katande Bonwell who completed his assignment as UNHCR Representative in Uganda at end of March 2018, and will take up the position of Head of the UNHCR Regional Service Centre in Nairobi.
Mr. Boutroue, has more than 30 years of experience in the United Nations system and in the humanitarian and development world. He has worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), and has been UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, as well as Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General. He has also served in senior advisory roles to UN Member States.
At such a critical time, with continuing influxes of refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and from South Sudan, Mr. Boutroue will lead UNHCR’s support to the Government of Uganda and ensure timely and efficient assistance to refugees. Uganda is host to more than one million refugees from South Sudan, and the figures keep swelling due to fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has forced many people to flee their country in search for asylum in Uganda