Ban Ki-moon appoints new special envoy to Yemen
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed a new special envoy to Yemen as fighting continues in the impoverished Arab country.
According to a Saturday statement, Ban appointed Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who has so far been the head of UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), as the new UN envoy to Yemen.
Ahmed "will work closely with the members of the United Nations Security Council, the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council, governments in the region and other partners, as well as the United Nations country team for Yemen," the statement said.
Ahmed replaces Jamal Benomar, who resigned on April 15 due to sharp criticism from Saudi Arabia and its allies for his little success in influencing the political scene in Yemen in their favor.
Saudi Arabia started a military aggression against Yemen on March 26 -- without a UN mandate -- in a bid to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a close ally of Riyadh.
According to reports, nearly 1,000 people have been killed during the aggression.
Also on Saturday, the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) announced their support for the planned extraordinary meeting of the OIC on Yemen scheduled to be held by mid-May.
The meeting, which will be held at the foreign ministers’ level at the request of Hadi, is set to discuss the current situation in Yemen.
MSM/NT/AS
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