BOUTROS Boutros-Ghali, the former UN Secretary-General, has died aged 93, the UN Security Council has said.He died at a Cairo hospital on Tuesday, Egypt’s State news agency said, after being admitted with a broken pelvis.
He took office in 1992, at a time of growing influence for the UN following its decisive role in the Gulf War, serving one five-year term.
However, he faced criticism for the UN’s failure to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Washington was angered by his opposition to NATO’s bombing campaign in Bosnia.
The 15-member Security Council observed a minute’s silence after the announcement of Mr Boutros-Ghali’s death, which was made at the start of a session on Yemen’s humanitarian crisis.
No further details on his death were immediately available.
A former Egyptian foreign minister, Boutros-Ghali had received a phone call from Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last Thursday, after being admitted to hospital, Egyptian press reported.
Born on 14 November 1922 into a Coptic Christian family in Cairo, Boutros-Ghali was educated at Cairo University and in Paris, where he established a lifelong connection with France.
He went on to study international relations at Columbia University in New York, and became Egypt’s foreign minister in 1977, under president Anwar al-Sadat.
After leaving the UN, Boutros-Ghali served from 1998 to 2002 as secretary-general of La Francophonie, a grouping of French-speaking nations.
In 2004, he was named the president of Egypt’s new human rights council, a body created by then Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak amid US pressure on Arab nations for democratic reform.