The United Nations International Organisation of Migration has announced the death of former U.N Secretary General, Kofi Annan on its Twitter page. He died on Saturday morning at a Swiss hospital after a short illness.
Today we mourn the loss of a great man, a leader, and a visionary: former @UNSecretary General @KofiAnnan
A life well lived. A life worth celebrating.
— IOM – UN Migration (@UNmigration) August 18, 2018
Born on April, 8, 1938, Kofi Annan was a Ghanaian Diplomat and the seventh United Nations Secretary General who served for almost ten years (January 1997 – December 2006), winning the Nobel Peace Prize alongside the United Nations in 2001.
He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.
While he was the U.N Secretary-General, Annan reformed the UN bureaucracy; worked to combat HIV, especially in Africa and launched the UN Global Compact.
He was severely criticized for not expanding the Security Council and faced calls for resignation after an investigation into the Oil-for-Food Programme.
Kofi Annan founded the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 when he left the United Nations in order to work on international development.
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In 2012, Kofi Annan was appointed as the United Nations–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, to help find a resolution to the ongoing conflict there. He quit the position after becoming frustrated with the UN’s lack of progress with regard to conflict resolution in Syria.
In September 2016, Kofi Annan was appointed to lead a UN commission to investigate the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.
Kofi Annan was one of the foremost African diplomats of his time and a National pride to his home country of Ghana. He remained a modest man even after people expected him to run for the National leadership of his country, he preferred to become the voice of Africa within International circles.
His influence in peace mediations on the African continent and the World at large will be sorely missed.