Saima Wazed, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) South-East Asia Region head and daughter of ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, resigned on Wednesday (September 10, 2026) following fraud investigations by the U.N. agency and Bangladeshi authorities, according to sources.
Wazed, who took office in early 2024 for a five-year term, on unpaid administrative leave late last year. She was first sent on leave in July 2025, in a move that followed Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission filing cases for fraud, forgery, and misuse of power against. The WHO placed Ms.
The WHO accused Ms. She has denied the allegations. Ms. The sources declined to be named given the sensitivity of the matter.
Tedros sent late on Wednesday (September 10, 2026). One of them said the WHO would announce nominations for the role on October 12, vet applications in December and hold elections on January 24.
Wazed of “committing financial fraud in relation to her travel to China” and of misrepresenting her academic credentials, according to a separate letter from her lawyers to the WHO on July 3, 2026. The WHO also alleged she had illegally acquired a plot of land in Bangladesh, according to her resignation letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Wazed said she acquired the land before she joined the WHO and was entitled to it under a Bangladeshi law that covered the families of the country’s independence leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father. “I was elected to the position of Regional Director in order to serve the countries in my region, which I had sincerely done,” Ms. Wazed said in her resignation letter to Mr. Two sources told Reuters earlier that the U.N. agency was planning to formally remove Wazed.
