By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Wabel Abdallah, International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) Resident Representative in Afghanistan has been killed in a restaurant attack.
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director (MD) of the Fund confirmed this in a Statement Friday and made available to InvestAdvocate.
“We have just learned that our dear colleague and friend Wabel Abdallah, our Resident Representative in Afghanistan, was killed in an attack at a restaurant in Kabul in which many people were killed. This is tragic news, and we at the fund are all devastated.
“Our hearts go out to Wabel’s family and friends, as well as the other victims of this attack.”
According to the IMF, Abdallah, 60, a Lebanese national, was appointed Resident Representative in June 2008. He joined the Fund from the Central Bank of Lebanon in 1993, and has held various IMF positions, especially on the IMF’s activities and operations in the Middle East.
Reports say one attacker blew himself up outside the Taverna du Liban in the upmarket Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood and two gunmen stormed inside, mowing down staff and diners.
We gathered that at least 14 people have been killed. One suicide attacker detonated himself outside the restaurant and two others got inside indiscriminately killing people.
This is coming on the heels of the death of Mohamed Chatah, a former adviser to the Fund less than a month.
Chatah a former Lebanese finance minister and ambassador to Washington was killed December 27, 2013 morning in a powerful car bomb explosion in central Beirut believed to be the first political assassination in Lebanon for over a year.
Reports affirmed that Chatah and his bodyguard died instantly, when a car bomb, estimated at around 110 pounds of explosive, detonated as his vehicle passed by.
