UN staff member dies of injuries sustained in August attack in Nigeria

UN staff member dies of injuries sustained in August attack in Nigeria

2011-12-30 07:14:16 GMT+7 (ICT)

ABUJA, NIGERIA (BNO NEWS) -- A United Nations (UN) staff member, who was injured in late August when a suicide bomber attacked a UN building in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, has died, officials confirmed on Thursday.

Fred Simiyu Willis, an employee of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), died last Friday at a hospital in South Africa. He had been receiving treatment there since he was injured on August 26, when a suicide bomber attacked a UN building in Abuja.

"It's a loss for the children of Nigeria and for all of us," said Kate Donovan, a spokeswoman for UNICEF, who described Willis as a 'very dedicated' employee who helped ensure immunization campaigns across Nigeria. "Our deepest condolences go out to his family and to his colleagues. He was a very highly valued member of the staff."

Willis, a Kenyan national, had worked for UNICEF in Abuja since September 2004. Donovan said he served as a health specialist who focused on vaccine security, supply and logistics in the African nation.

The death takes the number of people killed in the August attack to 25, including 13 UN staff members. UN Development Program (UNDP) staff member Sunday Nwachukwu passed away in early October, also at a hospital in South Africa.

The attack on the UN office in Abuja was claimed by the Islamist group Boko Haram, which has been blamed for most of the region's terrorist attacks and seeks the imposition of an extremist stance of the Shariah law, which is a Muslim code of conduct. The group's name, in the local language of Hausa, roughly translates as 'Western religion is sacrilegious' or 'non-Islamic religion is a sin.'

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