Born in 1962 in Lille, Christophe GUILHOU has spent his entire career in international affairs at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF). Graduate of Paris’ Institute of Political Studies (IEP) and National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), he speaks arab and swahili. Firstly, he hold various positions at the central administration in Quai d’Orsay, then he was appointed first counsellor at the French Embassy in the United Arab Emirates from 1995 to 1999 and later at the French Embassy in Syria from 1999 to 2002. Back in France, he was Diplomatic Advisor to the Minister of Health, Family and Disabled Persons from 2002 to 2004, then Deputy Director for Economic and Development Issues at the Quai d'Orsay from 2004 to 2005. He then returned to the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs as Advisor for North Africa, the Middle East, the United Nations and Human Rights from 2005 to 2006. In Geneva, he was the Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations Office (UNO), for three years, and thereafter was Consul General of France in Boston, USA, from 2009 to 2012. He joined the OIF in 2013, as Director of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights. In 2016, he was appointed in Djibouti as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and in Yaoundé, in Cameroun, from 2019 to 2022. Since then, he has been Director of Sustainable Development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.