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Former UN chief Boutros-Ghali dies

Nik MartinFebruary 16, 2016

The UN has announced that the Egyptian, who led the international body from 1992-96, has passed away. The 15-member Security Council observed a minute's silence following the announcement.

https://p.dw.com/p/1HwK2
Boutros Boutros-Ghali ehemaliger UNO Generalsekretär
Image: Imago/Xinhua

Boutros-Ghali's death was announced on Tuesday by the UN Security Council.

Venezuela's UN Ambassador, Rafael Ramirez, the current council president, made the announcement at the start of a meeting on Yemen's humanitarian crisis Tuesday and asked members to rise for a moment of silence.

Egyptian media reported that the 93-year-old died at a Cairo hospital after being admitted for a broken pelvis.

Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo into a Coptic Christian family in 1922.

He began his career in politics in 1974, going on to serve under the presidency of Anwar Sadat as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs for 14 years.

In 1991, Boutros-Ghali was elected to serve as Secretary-General of the United Nations, the first Arab to hold the position.

But his term in the top post remains controversial after criticism of the UN's failure to act during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, which saw more than a million people killed. He also faced censure for not pushing hard enough for UN intervention to end Angola's civil war in the 1990s.

His successes included the organization of the first massive UN relief operation for the famine in Somalia.

Although 19 Security Council members supported a resolution backing his second term from 1997 to 2001, the US vetoed the resolution, with support from Britain, South Korea and Italy.

He was succeeded by Kofi Annan.

Later in his career, he served as Secretary-General of La Francophonie, an organization of French-speaking nations and the Egyptian National Council on Human Rights.