NY 20 October 2011_The new Permanent Representative of Burundi to the United Nations, Herménégilde Niyonzima, presented his credentials today to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Before his appointment, Mr. Niyonzima had served as Burundi's Ambassador to Libya since October 2009.

He served from 2004 to 2008 in the Executive Secretariat of the National Council for the Demobilization, Return and Reintegration of Former Fighters in Burundi; for two years, through 2006, as Chief of the Demobilization Unit; and also as Director of Special Projects (for people with disabilities and child soldiers) until March 2008. He was Assistant to the Executive Secretary through the end of that year.

Additionally, for three years, from 2006, he was President of the Administrative Council of the Office of Public Transportation, where he had been Chief of Operations from 1988 to 1993, as well as a member of the Administrative Council for the Fund to Promote the Urban Habitat, a Government financial institution.

Mr. Niyonzima also served as Legal Representative and Project Coordinator for the Burundian Refugee Relief Organization, a charity registered in the United Kingdom, from 2001 through 2003. From 1991 to 1993, he taught psychology at the École National de Police (National Police Academy) and was a member of the Confederative Committee of the Union of Workers of Burundi. He was also an acting member of the National Assembly in June of 1993.

He served his country as Ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania from 1996 to 1998, and to Uganda from 1993 to 1996.

The new envoy has a Master of Arts degree in sustainable environmental management from Middlesex University in London (2001), and a Bachelor of Science in education from the University of Burundi (1988). He speaks French, Kirundi, English and Swahili.

He was born in Burundi on 17 October 1961, and is married with four children.