UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Haiti tomorrow to meet the country’s leaders and people left homeless by a January earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands, Ban’s spokesman said.
The UN’s Port-au-Prince headquarters collapsed along with thousands of other buildings in the magnitude 7.0 quake on January 12, and its mission chief in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, died.
Ban, who earlier this week sobbed during a memorial service for the 101 UN personnel who died in the quake, will visit the capital Port-au-Prince and meet with Haitian President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said yesterday.
He will also meet with leaders of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH.
The one-day trip will be Ban’s second to the impoverished Caribbean nation since the quake devastated the capital Port-au-Prince and demolished MINUSTAH’s headquarters in the worst loss of life in a single incident in the United Nations’ 65-year history.
Former UN special representative to Haiti Edmond Mulet was sent to Haiti to assume control of the UN police and military force after Annabi’s death.
“The Secretary General will also visit a camp for internally displaced persons and engage directly with Haitians still suffering the debilitating consequences of the earthquake,” Nesirky said.