Bangladeshi General to Replace Mongolian Commander at UN Force in Cyprus

By Bosphorus News Diplomacy Desk

UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Major General Mohammad Asadullah Minhazul Alam of Bangladesh as Force Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus on April 8, the United Nations said. He succeeds Major General Erdenebat Batsuuri of Mongolia, whose service Guterres praised in the same announcement.

The appointment places a Bangladeshi officer at the head of one of the UN's longest-running peacekeeping missions. UNFICYP was established in 1964 and continues to patrol the buffer zone on the divided island.

The UN said Alam brings more than 30 years of leadership and command experience. His recent posts in the Bangladesh Army included General Officer Commanding at Army Training and Doctrine Command. He also previously served as General Officer Commanding of the 10th Infantry Division and Area Commander in Cox's Bazar, according to the UN-backed account of his professional record carried by official sources.

Alam also has prior UN field experience. He served in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic between 2020 and 2021 and earlier worked as a military observer in East Timor between 1999 and 2000.

The change comes as UNFICYP remains in place under a renewed Security Council mandate and continues to operate in a politically contested environment on the island. Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriot side have long objected to aspects of the mission's presence in the north, but no public response from Ankara to Alam's appointment had emerged by April 11.