United Nations, Feb. 16 (Reuters): Former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whose term was marked by war in the former Yugoslavia and famine and genocide in Africa, has died, the president of the Security Council said today. He was 93.

An Egyptian, Boutros-Ghali served as UN chief from 1992 to 1996. As the UN's first secretary-general from Africa, Boutros-Ghali associated himself with the famine in Somalia and organised the first massive UN relief operation in the Horn of Africa nation.

But success eluded him there and elsewhere as the UN tottered in a post-communist world, with the world body underestimating the animosity behind many conflicts.