UN's Ban Ki-moon to attend Mandela memorial in South Africa

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will travel to Johannesburg for the memorial service in honor of the late Nelson Mandela, the United Nations said late Saturday.

Ban "will leave Paris for South Africa on Sunday to attend the official memorial service for former President Nelson Mandela on Tuesday. He will return to New York on Wednesday," Ban's office said in a brief statement.

The memorial, at Johannesburg's 94,000-seat Soccer City stadium, comes ahead of the funeral, which will see a cortege with Mandela's coffin pass through the streets of Pretoria on three consecutive days.

Presidents, religious leaders and cultural figureheads from around the world, including US President Barack Obama, are flocking to South Africa for the memorial service and funeral.

Mandela died December 5 at age 95 at his home in Johannesburg.