Dr Abdinasir Abubakar, WHO Representative in Lebanon

Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, MD, MPH was appointed as the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Lebanon on 1st February 2025. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Acting WHO Representative in Lebanon from May 2022.

Before his tenure in Lebanon, Dr. Abubakar held the position of Programme Area Manager for the Infectious Hazard Prevention and Preparedness unit at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean in Cairo, Egypt, for five years. In this capacity, he played a pivotal role in leading the Incident Management Support Team for the COVID-19 pandemic response across the Eastern Mediterranean Region coordinating the response and providing technical support to 22 countries. Dr. Abubakar has also served in various key roles at WHO, including as Team Lead and Epidemiologist in Cairo and South Sudan in the last two decades.

With over 30 years of extensive experience in public health, health systems, emergency preparedness and response, and epidemiological research, Dr. Abubakar has worked with both national and international institutions across various countries. He has successfully managed and responded to some of the worst disease outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics, both within the region and globally. These include COVID-19, H5N1, MERS-CoV, meningococcal meningitis, cholera, Rift Valley fever, visceral leishmaniasis, anthrax, and viral hemorrhagic fever.

Dr. Abubakar has contributed extensively to operational research on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19, influenza, meningitis, cholera, yellow fever, nodding syndrome, visceral leishmaniasis, and HIV/AIDS. He is the author and co-author of over 50 research articles published in peer-reviewed international journals.

Dr. Abubakar holds a degree in medicine from the Faculty of Medicine at the Somali National University in Mogadishu and a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology and International Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, United States.