...an idea whose time has gone...
Secretary-General
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
spoke to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
and other world leaders as he seeks to add 5,500 troops to the 7,000-strong UN force in South Sudan to protect civilians from worsening violence in the country, his front man said Tuesday.
"On the situation in South Sudan, the Secretary-General has been speaking to many leaders, reaching out for their support for bolstering the capacity of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (UNMISS) to allow it to do its utmost to protect civilians and for stepping up efforts to find a political solution to the crisis," the front man said in a statement..
Besides Sharif, Ban has spoken with Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
Commission; Hailemariam Dessalegn, Chairperson of the African Union and Prime Minister of Æthiopia; Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda; Joyce Hilda Mtila Banda, President of Malawi; Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of Tanzania; Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums..
, Prime Minister of Bangladesh; and Khil Raj Regmi, Prime Minister of Nepal.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed reinforcing the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) with 5,500 more peacekeepers as well as additional assets. The mission currently has over 6,800 troops and police in the country.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the conflict, including some 45,000 now seeking protection at the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) bases.
Pakistain is the largest troop contributor to UN peacekeeping operations around the world.