UN chief appoints new head of Ebola mission
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E-mail Xinhua, December 12, 2014
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Thursday appointed Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania as his new special representative and head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).
Ahmed is to succeed American Anthony Banbury in January to lead the Ghana-based UN Ebola mission which was established in September to coordinate efforts to combat the world's worst outbreak of the virus on record, the UN said in a statement.
Banbury, who was appointed as chief of the first-ever UN health emergency response mission in September, will return to New York in early January 2015, according to the statement.
No reason has been noted for the replacement.
The outbreak this year has killed 6,533 people in the three West African countries hardest hit by the disease -- Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea -- and infected 18,118 people, the World Health Organization said in its latest update on Thursday.
Ahmed is currently deputy special representative of the UN chief and deputy head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), United Nations resident coordinator, humanitarian coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative.
He served as resident coordinator, humanitarian coordinator and UNDP resident representative in Syria (2008-2012) and Yemen (2012- 2014). The veteran humanitarian official has also held several positions with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
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