Lieutenant General Balla Keita is the United Nations Force Commander of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Prior to this appointment of 11 February 2016 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Lieutenant General Balla Keita served as Acting Force Commander of the Mission.
Biographical information
From 2013 to 2015, Lieutenant General Balla Keita was the Deputy Force Commander of the African Union/United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, and from 2007 to 2010 was the Sector Commander of the Mission. From 2012 to 2013, Lieutenant General Keita held senior level government positions and was Inspector General of the Senegalese Armed Forces. He is a graduate of several military schools including the “École militaire inter-armes de Coëtquidan”, the Command and General Staff College of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (USA), and the War College of Hamburg (Germany).