UN condoles victims
By Uduma Kalu
United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki Moon yesterday condoled with families of victims of the bomb blast on the UN headquarters yesterday describing as “an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others.”
In a press statement signed by Mr. Charles Nosa. Osazuwa, Officer-In-Charge, United Nations Information Centre, Lagos, Ki Moon said, “These buildings house 26 humanitarian and development agencies of the United Nations family” adding, “We condemn this terrible act, utterly.
“We do not yet have precise casualty figures but they are likely to be considerable. A number of people are dead; many more are wounded.
“Nigerian and international search and rescue teams have mobilized and are moving the wounded to hospitals and providing emergency aid.
“I am asking the Deputy UN Secretary-General, Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro, [to go] to Nigeria immediately and am mobilizing the UN system to respond to this emergency. She will be accompanied by the UN security chief, Under-Secretary-General Gregory Starr, and meet with Nigerian authorities upon arrival in Abuja.
“I am going to call President [Goodluck] Jonathan of Nigeria soon. On this very sad occasion, I extend my deepest sympathies to the victims and their families. The United Nations will undertake every possible effort to assist them during this difficult time.”
He highlighted how the global body was increasingly becoming a “soft target” for extremists.
“This was an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others. We condemn this terrible act utterly,” he told reporters.
Ban went on to a Security Council meeting on peacekeeping around the world, which started with one minute’s silence for the victims, and where the UN leader highlighted his fears of attacks.
“Let me say it clearly, these acts of terrorism are unacceptable, they will not deter us from our vital work for the people of Nigeria and the world,” he told the 15-nation council.
“This outrageous and shocking attack is evidence that the UN premises are increasingly being viewed as a soft target by extremist elements around the world,” Ban added.
The UN leader was at the Abuja headquarters during a visit to Nigeria two months ago. The UN has increasingly become a terrorist target over the past decade. It was given a brutal wake-up call when a suicide truck bomb on the UN offices in Baghdad on August 19, 2003 killed the UN special representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 other people.
There have since been other attacks on the UN in Afghanistan and Pakistan and in 2007, 18 UN staff were killed in a car bomb on the UN compound in Algiers.
This year has been particularly tough for the UN with attacks on its buildings around the world and serving peacekeepers as well as plane crashes and other disasters.
Starr has already had to change security in Afghanistan after a mob taking part in protests in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif on April 1, invaded the UN compound and killed seven UN workers and guards.
Thirty-two UN workers were killed in a plane crash in the Democratic Republic of Congo on April 5.
Four Ethiopian peacekeepers were killed in a landmine blast in the Sudanese region of Abyei this month and two African peacekeepers have been killed in Darfur in the past two months.
