Friday, 5 January 2007
NEW SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON TURNS HIS ATTENTION TO DARFUR

Ban Ki-moon formally took over as UN Secretary-General on 1 January 2007 and said he will immediately turn his attention to the "crisis situation" in Darfur. "I start my duty at a daunting time in international affairs starting from Darfur to Middle East, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, [and the] many other crises that trouble our world,” the Secretary-General told reporters on his first day in office.

On 4 January Mr Ban chaired the first meeting of the Task Force on Darfur, a new grouping set up by the UN to help guide and streamline efforts to end the humanitarian and security crisis in the Sudanese region. The Secretary-General is also scheduling meetings with envoys from the African Union after speaking with his Special Envoy on the issue, Jan Eliasson, earlier in the week. Mr Eliasson, the former General Assembly President and Swedish foreign minister, was appointed to the position last month.

Ban Ki-moon made a number of other high-level appointments. On 5 January Tanzanian Foreign Minister Asha-Rose Migiro was appointed United Nations Deputy Secretary-General when she accepted the post offered to her by the Secretary-General. Read about her appointment in a UN News Centre Story.

British diplomat Sir John Holmes was announced as the new UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Mr Holmes, who has served as the UK Ambassador to France since 2001, replaces Norway’s Jan Egeland who stepped down last month after more than three years in office.

Mr Ban has also named India's Vijay Nambiar as his Chef de Cabinet and Mexico's Alicia Barcena to spearhead UN reform efforts as Under-Secretary-General for Management. Click to visit the new homepage of the Secretatary-General.