Draft:Mirko Manzoni

Mirko Manzoni
Mr. Manzoni (born in 1967, Lugano, Switzerland) is a Swiss diplomat and former humanitarian with the International Committee of the Red Cross. In July 2019, he was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General as his Personal Envoy (PESG) for Mozambique. In this role, Mr. Manzoni provided good offices to support dialogue between the Government of Mozambique and RENAMO [Resistência Nacional Moçambicana] towards the signing and subsequent implementation of a peace agreement between the parties, the Maputo Accord for Peace and National Reconciliation. This followed his role as Swiss Ambassador to Mozambique where he supported the peace process between the Government of Mozambique and RENAMO in his capacity as Chief Mediator and Chair of the International Contact Group.

In November 2023, following the final RENAMO military base closure and the end of the mandate of the PESG for Mozambique, he took up the role as Ambassador of Switzerland to South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Mauritius, and Eswatini, and as Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Education
Mr Manzoni holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology at EPFL and a Masters in Business Administration from the School of Business in HEC Lausanne, Switzerland.

Career
Mr Manzoni began his humanitarian career with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), serving in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He was a diplomat with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs since 2004, serving in Kosovo, Mali, and Poland, prior to becoming Ambassador to Mozambique in 2014.

From 2017 he supported the peace process between the Government of Mozambique and RENAMO in his capacity as Chief Mediator and Chair of the International Contact Group. In this role he and fellow Mediator, Neha Sanghrajka, conducted shuttle diplomacy from the capital, Maputo to the RENAMO stronghold in the province of Sofala, to facilitate dialogue between the leaders of RENAMO, the late Alfonso Dhaklama and Ossufo Momade, and President of the Republic of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi.

On 08 July 2019, he was appointed as the United Nations Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for Mozambique to support the Maputo Accord for Peace and National Reconciliation (06 August 2019), of which he is a witness to the agreement.

He attributes the success of the process to the strong nationally owned process and leadership and trust of the Parties.

From 2019 to 2023, his good offices supported the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration process in Mozambique. This included bringing into the process, through negotiations, the members of self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta (RMJ) which had emerged a few weeks before the signing of the agreement and was led by Mariano Nhongo a former Renamo military officer. In July 2023 the final of all 16 RENAMO bases were closed, marking the disarmament and demobilisation of the 5,221 former RENAMO combatants.

Personal Life
Mr Manzoni speaks French, English, German, Italian, and Portuguese.

He is married with two children.