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116 UN personnel killed on the job in 2010

12 January 2011 02:39 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least 116 UN personnel were killed on the job in 2010, including 102 in the Haiti earthquake, the United Nations Staff Union said in a statement issued here Tuesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

The statement called 2010 an "annus horribilis," due to the abundance of death and disaster that the international organization faced over the course of the year, beginning with the January 2010 earthquake.

"The Staff Union again pays homage to the 102 United Nations personnel who died on 12 January 2010 in the Haiti earthquake -- the biggest single loss of life in the history of United Nations peacekeeping," said Stephen Kisambira, UN Staff Union president.

"One year later, the pain from that loss has not diminished, and the Staff Union mourns together with the families and friends of the deceased even as we commiserate with the survivors whose lives have forever changed," Kisambira said.

The earthquake killed 59 civilian personnel and 43 members of the police and military contingents of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

Beyond Haiti, acts of violence around the world killed 10 peacekeepers, three civilian subcontractors and at least one civilian staff member this year, the statement said.

"Once again, United Nations personnel were senselessly killed while working to assist populations in need," said Kisambira.

The Staff Union said the Darfur region of the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan were, again, among the most dangerous areas for United Nations personnel.

"We appeal to the governments concerned to do the utmost to guarantee the protection of United Nations staff and other related personnel. The string of kidnappings in Darfur is particularly worrisome," Kisambira said.

Kisambria was referring to a recent spate of abductions in the troubled west Sudanese region in 2010, most recently the seizing of an African Union and UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) staff member, who was returned by captors on Jan. 5.