Peter Jan Graaff of Netherlands appointed as head of UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response

United Nations (UN) has nominated Peter Jan Graaff of the Netherlands as the new chief of UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).
He will replace Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed who was recently appointed as special UN envoy for Yemen.
With this appointment, Peter Jan Graaff  will work closely with Special Envoy on Ebola David Nabarro, along with governments in the region.
Since October 2014, Graaff had served as Ebola crisis manager for Liberia, one of the African countries which were affected by the Ebola epidemic along with Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Previously Graaff had worked for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in several African countries, Afghanistan and Haiti. He also had led the Civil Affairs and Development team for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Some facts about Ebola epidemic

• As per WHO estimates, more than 26,000 people have been infected with Ebola since the outbreak which began late in 2013.
• In this epidemic more than 10,800 people have died since its outbreak.
• More than 99 per cent of the death cases were reported in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2015