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The United Nations envoy charged with leading the response to the Ebola crisis in Guinea died on Monday, just a month after taking on the role, the organisation said.
Rwandan national Marcel Rudasingwa 59, "died suddenly", Aissata Cisse Yao Yao, of the UN Development Programme, said in a statement which did not reveal the cause.
"At a time when we are focusing all our energies to help Guinea out of the Ebola outbreak, Marcel Rudasingwa made an invaluable contribution which is to be applauded," Yao added.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Rudasingwa Guinea coordinator for the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) on October 8.
A career UN employee, he had worked at the United Nations Children's Fund for 20 years in Kenya, Mali, Guinea and Denmark.
The deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has killed more than 5,000 people in west Africa and infected almost three times that number, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus emerged in Guinea at the start of the year and has infected around 1,900 Guineans, killing almost 1,200.
The United Nations envoy charged with leading the response to the Ebola crisis in Guinea died on Monday, just a month after taking on the role, the organisation said.
Rwandan national Marcel Rudasingwa 59, "died suddenly", Aissata Cisse Yao Yao, of the UN Development Programme, said in a statement which did not reveal the cause.
"At a time when we are focusing all our energies to help Guinea out of the Ebola outbreak, Marcel Rudasingwa made an invaluable contribution which is to be applauded," Yao added.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Rudasingwa Guinea coordinator for the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) on October 8.
A career UN employee, he had worked at the United Nations Children's Fund for 20 years in Kenya, Mali, Guinea and Denmark.
The deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has killed more than 5,000 people in west Africa and infected almost three times that number, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus emerged in Guinea at the start of the year and has infected around 1,900 Guineans, killing almost 1,200.