Zainab Bangura
Zainab Hawa Bangura | |
|---|---|
Bangura in 2013 | |
| Director-General, United Nations Office at Nairobi | |
| Assumed office January 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Hanna Tetteh |
| United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict | |
| In office 2 September 2012 – 31 March 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Margot Wallström |
| Succeeded by | Pramila Patten |
| Sierra Leone Minister of Health and Sanitation | |
| In office 10 December 2010 – 1 September 2012 | |
| Preceded by | Soccoh Kabia |
| Succeeded by | Tamba Borbor-Sawyer |
| Sierra Leone Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 14 October 2007 – 3 December 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Momodu Koroma |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Bandabla Dauda |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Zainab Hawa Sesay 18 December 1959 |
| Party | All People's Congress (APC) |
| Spouse | The Late Shekie Gibril Bangura |
| Children | Ibrahim Bangura and Tahira Bangura |
| Alma mater | Fourah Bay College-University of Sierra Leone, University of Nottingham City University Business School of London |
| Profession | Social activist |
Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura (/ˈzaɪnəb ˈhɑːwə bəŋˈɡuːrə/; born 18 December 1959) is a Sierra Leonean politician and social activist who has been serving as the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) since 2018, appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. She served as the second United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict at the level of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations from 2012 to 2017, in succession to the first holder of the post, Margot Wallström. In 2017 she was succeeded by Pramila Patten.
In 2007, Bangura became Sierra Leone's foreign minister in the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's Congress (APC) Party. She was the second woman to serve in that post, following Shirley Gbujama who held that position from 1996 to 1997. She served as Minister of Health and Sanitation from 2010 to 2012.