Zainab Bangura

Zainab Bangura

Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura (born 18 December 1959) is a Sierra Leonean politician and social activist. She was appointed as Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict in September 2012.

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 as Sierra Leone's foreign minister, following Shirley Gbujama who held that position from 1996 to 1997. She was Sierra Leone minister of Health and sanitation from 2010 to 2012.

As a devoted muslim, Zainab Hawa Bangura took time off politics in 2009 and headed to the Holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia and participated in the 2009 Hajj pilgrimage ceremony. . She was appointed as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict on 22 June 2012.

Read more about Zainab Bangura:  Early Life, Public Life, Awards