Haiti, january 17: The UN mission chief in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, died in Tuesday’s earthquake that devastated the country’s capital, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced. Annabi, a Tunisian, was believed to be 65.
In a statement, Ban also confirmed the death of Annabi’s deputy, Brazilian Luiz Carlos da Costa, and of the acting UN police commissioner in Haiti, Doug Coates of Canada.
Ban gave no details of how the bodies had been found, but the world body said earlier this week that Annabi and his aides were under the rubble of the Hotel Christopher, the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince, and could be alive or dead.
Haitian President Rene Preval said on Wednesday that Annabi had died, but the United Nations said at the time it could not confirm that.
Annabi is the first UN mission chief to die in the line of duty since Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil was killed along with 14 other UN staff when a truck bomb exploded outside the UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003.
–Agencies