By KUNA
United Nations : Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his wife will visit later this month Ghana, Liberia, Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire and then three European countries, it was announced here on Friday.
His first stop will be Accra, Ghana, where he is scheduled to address the opening of the 12th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) scheduled for April 20. He also plans to meet there with Ghanaian President John Kufuor and the Foreign Minister.
From Accra, he will travel to the Liberian capital Monrovia where he will meet with the country’s leadership, the leadership of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the UN Country Team.
From Monrovia, the Secretary-General plans to travel to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso where a bilateral meeting is planned with President Blaise Compaore, the Facilitator of the Inter-Ivorian Dialogue and current Chairman of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
His final stop is Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, where meetings are planned on April 24th with President Laurent Gbagbo, the Prime Minister, and with opposition leaders and civil society.
He will also meet with the leadership of the UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (ONUCI).
It was also announced that Ban will then fly to Geneva, Switzerland, Vienna, Austria, and London, UK. The plan for his European visits has not been finalized yet.
He is scheduled to be back in New York on May 2nd.