- Title: UNITED NATIONS: Peacekeeper death toll in Haiti earthquake reaches 36
- Date: 15th January 2010
- Summary: UNITED NATIONS (JANUARY 13, 2010) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF U.N. BUILDING WITH FLAG AT HALF-MAST
- Embargoed: 30th January 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations,Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVA18R55O4FPTEOZLEHGO8KGE63H
- Story Text: The number of U.N. military and police officials confirmed to have been killed in the Haiti earthquake now stands at 36, U.N. officials said on Thursday (January 14).
Speaking to reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York where the U.N. flag flew at half-mast for a second day, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Ban also said that around 150 U.N. staff remain unaccounted for. He added that he had no news about the fate of the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi of Tunisia.
"The picture looks very much like, as it did, yesterday: approximately 150 U.N. staff remain unaccounted for, roughly 100 of them were likely in the U.N. headquarters building, the Christopher Hotel, when it collapsed," Ban said Haitian President Rene Preval said on Wednesday that Annabi was dead. But U.N. officials later cast doubt on his remarks, saying they had no information to confirm it.
Annabi was in the five-story U.N. peacekeeping mission's headquarters in Port-au-Prince when it collapsed during the earthquake, which struck at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. U.N. officials said he is among those trapped in the rubble and it is not clear if he is alive or dead.
As Ban was briefing the press, he paused to receive details and to recount the rescue of one U.N. worker, Taro Joveer, from the rubble.
"It was a small miracle on a night which brought few other miracles," the Secretary-General said.
Ban said that U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes would issue a flash appeal, probably on Friday afternoon, for emergency funds for Haiti, although it was unclear how much the United Nations would ask donors to provide. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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