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At least 14 UN peacekeepers dead after Haiti quake

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-14 07:26
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At least 14 UN peacekeepers dead after Haiti quake

United Nations Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Alain Le Roy of France, briefs reporters on the current situation after the earthquake in Haiti at UN headquarters in New York, January 13, 2010. Thousands were feared dead in a major earthquake that destroyed the presidential palace, schools, hospitals and hillside shanties in Haiti, its leaders said on Wednesday, and the United States and other nations geared up for a big relief operation. [Agencies]
At least 14 UN peacekeepers dead after Haiti quake

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations said on Wednesday 14 people at its peacekeeping mission in Haiti died when its headquarters collapsed during an earthquake and predicted the death toll would rise considerably.

Susana Malcorra, a senior UN peacekeeping official, said that 10 Brazilians, three Jordanians and one Haitian were confirmed to have died in the earthquake on Tuesday. She said the preliminary figure for the number of injured was 56.

UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said the UN death toll was expected to rise sharply as rescue workers searched the rubble of the five-story headquarters and other buildings.

"The number of casualties and fatalities will be extremely high," he told reporters.

Le Roy and Malcorra said around 150 UN staff members were still missing, among them the head of the MINUSTAH peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, and his deputy.

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Haitian President Rene Preval declared that Annabi, a Tunisian believed to be aged 65, had been confirmed dead, but UN officials cast doubt on his remarks.

"We are aware of the news reports attributed to President Preval that Annabi has been confirmed to have been killed," UN peacekeeping spokesman Nicholas Birnback said.

"We've been in touch with the UN mission in Haiti ... and with the permanent mission of Haiti to the United Nations, and neither has been able to confirm this information," he said, adding that the world body was urgently seeking clarification of Preval's remarks.

Le Roy said Annabi was in the building at the time of the earthquake and that he was believed to be among those trapped in the rubble of the MINUSTAH headquarters.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the damage was vast and "tens, if not hundreds of thousands of homes" had been damaged in the earthquake, which struck late Tuesday afternoon.

The UN mission was headquartered in the former Christopher Hotel in the capital Port-au-Prince, where administrative staff worked. Most of MINUSTAH's 9,000 troops and police were located elsewhere.

UN humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes said earlier that between 3 million and 3.5 million people were living in areas affected by severe shaking during the earthquake and its aftershocks. It was not clear how many people had died.

"Initial reports suggest a high number of casualties," Holmes said. Preval said he had heard total death toll estimates as high as 50,000.

The main priority, Holmes said, was search-and-rescue operations to find and extract buried people. He said a Chinese team had arrived at the airport in Port-au-Prince and that two US teams were expected later on Wednesday.

Further search-and-rescue teams were expected to arrive from France, Iceland and the neighboring Dominican Republic in the near future, he said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was sending Le Roy's deputy, Edmond Mulet, to Haiti. Le Roy said Mulet would arrive and take over as the acting head of MINUSTAH on Thursday as rescue workers search for Annabi.

The UN chief also said $10 million would be released immediately from the world body's central emergency response fund to assist aid efforts.

Holmes said the United Nations would organize a flash appeal to raise more funds for Haiti over the next few days.