Bad news for Africa

BBC:

Gordon Brown has appointed a former senior UN diplomat as UK minister for Africa, Asia and the United Nations.

Sir Mark Malloch Brown, 53, will be made a life peer and attend Cabinet meetings when necessary.

He worked under Kofi Annan as deputy secretary-general of the UN from April to December 2006 and was previously his right-hand man or chef de cabinet.

...

In 2006 he was strongly criticised by the US ambassador to the UN when he said that the Bush administration allowed "too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping".

But he refused to apologise for his remarks and Mr Annan stood by him.

...
They put the Kofi Annan apologist in to look out for Africa? Do they remember the oil for food scandal in the UK? Just this past Sunday he was demonstrating his ignorance on African issues by buying into the Sudan excuse for not wanting UN forces to supervise the Darfur area because of Iraq. I guess he needed a job and they figured he could not screw up places like Sudan and Zimbabwe any more than the people who are running them.

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