The UN has conveyed condolences to the family of the late Marcel Kanyankore Rudasingwa, a Rwandan who was in October appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, as the point man in the fight against Ebola in Guinea. 

Rudasingwa passed on yesterday ‘suddenly from natural causes’ at the age of 59.

"The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response today (yesterday) mourns the passing of Marcel Rudasingwa, Assistant Secretary-General and the Mission’s Emergency Crisis Manager in Guinea. A Rwandan national, Rudasingwa passed on suddenly from natural causes,” Farhan Haq, the Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, told journalists at the UN Headquarters in New York yesterday.

The Head of the UN Mission, Anthony Banbury, said in just a short space of time, Rudasingwa had played a pivotal role in the organisation’s and the international community’s response to the Ebola crisis in Guinea. "Our thoughts are with Rudasingwa’s family at this time.”

Rudasingwa, who was until his appointment to Guinea Unicef Representative in Kenya, was one of the three Ebola Crisis Managers under the newly created United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).

The deceased, according to the UN, served Unicef diligently for almost 20 years, having served extensively in various senior management and leadership functions in Kenya, Mali, Guinea and Denmark. By press time, the cause of his death remained unclear but UN and family sources ruled out Ebola, the deadly virus that has killed an estimated 5,000 people in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Gerald Mbanda, a cousin to the deceased, said Rudasingwa last communicated with his relatives in Kigali on Sunday and had not complained of any illness.

"He spoke to people here yesterday (Sunday) as he always done. There was nothing to suggest that he was unwell,” he told The New Times last evening.

He said the late Rudasingwa was yesterday morning scheduled to attend a meeting and when he failed to turn up his colleagues got concerned because he was not known as a habitual latecomer, which prompted them to go look for him in his hotel room. According to Guinean media, the diplomat was staying in Millenium Hotel in the capital Conakry.

Mbanda said the family was informed that the body had no injuries to suggest possible foul play.

"Of course it’s not Ebola because Ebola does not kill instantly and he showed no symptoms of such, that’s very remote.”

"We are waiting for post-mortem results,” he said.

Rudasingwa’s family, Mbanda said, was still in Nairobi –where, until early last month, Rudasingwa was Unicef country representative – with one of his two surviving children studying in Canada.

Health minister Dr Agnes Binagwaho was among those who mourned Rudasingwa yesterday. She tweeted: "Sad to learn that #Rwanda Dr Rudasingwa appointed by @secgen Ban Kin Moon to fight against Ebola in Guinea has passed away. May his soul RIP”.

The New Times learnt that Rudasingwa lost five children during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

"He was a loving, family man,” Mbanda said of the deceased.

Born in 1955 in Rwanda, Rudasingwa graduated from Makerere University in Uganda in 1979 with a Bachelor’s Degree in languages and communication.

He had undertaken additional studies in psychology and teaching.

Rudasingwa is survived by a wife and two children.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw