Barbara Manzi, the most senior UN representative in Burkina Faso, has received the support of UN Secretary-General António Guterres despite receiving a departure order from the government on Friday.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Mr. Guterres said he had complete faith in the Burkina-UN system as well as in Ms. Manzi’s dedication and competence.
Burkina Faso has experienced political unrest for a long time; just in2022, there were two military takeovers. At least 79 people were killed in a terrorist attack on a town in the country’s north in June, and on Monday, a minibus reportedly collided with a landmine, killing about 10 people. This year has also seen a continuation of the deadly terrorist attacks that have long plagued the nation.
With over a million people forced from their homes due to ongoing conflict and poverty, Burkina Faso is experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis in the midst of this lack of security.
The crisis was exacerbated in November when Ms. Manzi wrote about how vulnerable health and education services were to terrorist attacks in a blog post for UN News.
According to media reports, the Burkina Faso Foreign Ministry justified its decision to declare Ms. Manzi persona non grata by citing her decision to remove non-essential staff from the nation’s capital, Ouagadougou.
However, as Mr. Guterres noted in his statement, United Nations representatives are not covered by the persona non grata doctrine.
The UN chief stated that “Under Article 100 and 101 of the United Nations Charter, United Nations staff members are appointed by the Secretary-General, accountable only to the Organization, and United Nations Member States undertake to respect their exclusively international character.”
In order to carry out their duties on behalf of the Organization, UN employees have the right to stay in Burkina Faso, according to the statement, and only the UN Secretary-General, who serves as the organization’s chief administrative officer, has the power to order any UN employee to leave the country.
Mr. Guterres reaffirmed the UN’s commitment to working with Burkina Faso’s interim leaders and to providing assistance to the nation and its citizens.