UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon has named the UN's top envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, as the new UN special envoy for Sudan, his press office announced Tuesday.
"The secretary-general has decided to appoint Ashraf Jehangir Qazi of Pakistan as his special representative for Sudan," said a statement issued by the office.
Qazi succeeds Jan Pronk who was expelled from Sudan last year for his comments on the Sudanese army's affairs.
Earlier in the day, the UN chief, currently on a visit to Sudan, also announced the appointment of Qazi at a press conference in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba.
Ban praised the Pakistani diplomat for his "wide and extensive diplomatic experience" and hoped that the new envoy will have the full support of Khartoum in the deployment of a UN-African Union ( AU) hybrid mission in Darfur.
Qazi has been the UN's top envoy for Iraq since 2004 when he replaced Sergio Vieira de Mello who was killed in a massive bombing at the world body's Baghdad office in August 2003.
The UN Security Council decided on July 31 to deploy a 26,000- strong UN-AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
Source: Xinhua
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