A Former United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Kofi Annan is dead. He died at a hospital in Switzerland, Saturday morning at age 80.
A close source in Switzerland who confirmed his death to gbcghanaonline’s Ruth Abla Adjorlolo said Kofi Annan died Saturday morning August 18, 2018, at a hospital in Switzerland, after short illness.
The Ghanaian diplomat served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. Mr. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.
He is the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.
Born in Kumasi April 8, 1938, Kofi Atta Annan attended the Mfantsipim Secondary school from 1954 to 1957.
He is a member of MOBA 1957 Year Group.
In 1958, Annan began studying economics at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana.
He received a Ford Foundation grant, enabling him to complete his undergraduate studies in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, in 1961. Annan then completed a diplôme d’études approfondies DEA degree in International Relations at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961–62.
After some years of work experience, he studied at the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1971 to 72.
Kofi Annan went on to study economics at Macalester College, International Relations from the Graduate Institute Geneva and management at MIT.
Annan joined the UN in 1962, working for the World Health Organization‘s Geneva office.
He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters including serving as the Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996.
Mr. Annan was appointed as the Secretary-General on 13 December 1996 by the Security Council, and later confirmed by the General Assembly, making him the first office holder to be elected from the UN staff itself.
He was re-elected for a second term in 2001, and was succeeded as Secretary-General by Ban Ki-moon on 1 January 2007.
As the Secretary-General, Annan reformed the UN bureaucracy; worked to combat HIV, especially in Africa; and launched the UN Global Compact.
He has been criticized for not expanding the Security Council and faced calls for resignation after an investigation into the Oil-for-Food Programme.
After leaving the UN, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 to work on international development.
In 2012, Annan was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, to help find a resolution to the ongoing conflict there.
Annan quit after becoming frustrated with the UN’s lack of progress with regard to conflict resolution.
In September 2016, Annan was appointed to lead a UN commission to investigate the Rohingya crisis.
Kofi Annan left behind his spouse Nane Maria Annan and their children, Ama, Kojo and Nina who were by his side during his last days.
Portions of this article was culled from Wikipedia
