Global General

UN chief to travel to Haiti Sunday: spokesman

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-16 10:14

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will travel on Sunday to Haiti, which was devastated by a massive earthquake on Tuesday, his spokesman Martin Nesirky told Xinhua here Friday.

Nesirky said that the Secretary-General made the announcement during his meeting with Haitian staff at United Nations headquarters Friday to comfort them and to offer his condolences.

"He told them he would visit Haiti on Sunday to show his solidarity with the people of Haiti and UN staff, and to assess the humanitarian assistance effort and the scale of the disaster for himself,"the spokesman said.

Ban planned the trip at a time when the United Nations continues to rush aid to the victims. The 7.3-magnitude earthquake is said to have affected one-third of Haiti's 9-million strong population. Many of the people in the hard-hit capital, Port-au-Prince, do not have access to food, water, shelter and electricity.

With the top UN official in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, still unaccounted for, Ban dispatched Edmond Mulet, his former special representative to Haiti and current assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, to the country to assume full command of the UN Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH).

Ban said he is also sending Tony Banbury, the UN assistant secretary-general for field operations, to serve as Mulet's deputy.

Nesirky announced earlier Friday that some 330 UN personnel are still missing or unaccounted for, with 36 military and civilian MINUSTAH personnel, as well as one staff member with the UN World Food Program (WFP), having been confirmed dead.

The Christopher Hotel, which houses the UN headquarters in Haiti, and other buildings hosting the world body's offices collapsed in the earthquake.