UN Appoints New Ebola Mission Head Amid Continuing Fight Against Virus

© AP Photo / Abbas DullehEbola health care workers carry the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus in a small village Gbah on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia
Ebola health care workers carry the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus in a small village Gbah on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia - Sputnik International
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The United Nations has appointed the current Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Deputy Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya as a new head for its Mission for Ebola Emergency Response.

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UNITED NATIONS, December 12 (Sputnik) – The United Nations has appointed a new leader for its Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), aimed at helping in the fight against the deadly outbreak of the virus in West Africa.

"Mr. [Ismail] Ould Cheikh Ahmed [of Mauritania] succeeds Anthony Banbury of the United States, who will return to New York in early January 2015. The [UN] Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon] expresses his gratitude to Mr. Banbury for his vision and leadership of UNMEER, and for his commitment to fighting this unprecedented Ebola outbreak," the United Nations said in a statement Thursday.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed is currently Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Deputy Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya. Most of UN staff have been evacuated from Libya due to the lack of security in the country.

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Before Libya, Ould Cheikh Ahmed served as Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Resident Representative in Syria (2008-2012) and Yemen (2012-2014). He has also held several positions with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

UNMEER was established in September, amid a continuing Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa. The outbreak started in December, 2013 in Guinea and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. Several Ebola cases have been reported in the United States and Europe.

As of December 8, there have been 17,800 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola, with a total of 6,331 having been killed by the virus, according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.

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