We have the sad duty to inform you that today, we lost another member of our Peacekeeping family. Abdel Fadeel Mohamed Basheer, a United Nations Volunteer from Sudan serving in the Medical Section of the UN Mission in Liberia passed away in a hospital in Leipzig from the Ebola Virus Disease. Our colleague had been medivaced from Liberia to Germany after testing positive for EVD on 6 October. Mr. Basheer had been engaged in the treatment of an earlier probable case of Ebola, a national staff member whom we lost on 25 September. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Basheers friends and family and today, we all stand in unity with our colleagues in UNMIL. This is an exceptionally difficult time for our staff, their families, friends and--most of all--the people of the affected countries in West Africa. We take this opportunity to reiterate that we are doing everything possible to assist, while ensuring that all our personnel are protected and cared for as they carry out their vital life-saving work. We are cooperating closely with our colleagues in the UN Ebola Response Mission (UNMEER) who are leading the fight against Ebola. We are grateful to everyone involved in the efforts to care for our personnel, particularly those involved in the medivac and the hospital in Germany who cared for him until the end. In Liberia, UNMIL Medical teams have ‘contact traced’ everyone who came into contact with both individuals while they were symptomatic. They have been assessed and quarantined and all UNMIL staff considered at-risk have been isolated and are being carefully observed. As we informed you last week, mitigation measures and contingency plans are also being put in place to ensure that while we serve and support those most in need, we are protecting all of our personnel to the fullest extent possible. We are also in discussions with our colleagues in UNMEER and across all of our missions to ensure that all possible measures are in place throughout our operations. We will continue to inform you of important developments and we remain committed to protecting those who protect the most vulnerable. Mr. Basheer gave his life in the service of peace, far from home, on the front lines of the battle against Ebola. In his sacrifice we see both the enormity of the challenge we face and how important it is that we succeed. Hervé Ladsous and Ameerah Haq
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 07:42:35 +0000
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