age of 80 after a short illness, his family and foundation announced on
Saturday.
The Ghanaian was the seventh secretary general and served for two terms
between 1997 and 2006. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his
humanitarian work jointly with the UN as an organisation in 2001.
He died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland in the early hours of Saturday
with his wife, Nane, and three children Ama, Kojo and Nina, by his side.
He had retired to Geneva and later lived in a Swiss village.
Annan’s foundation issued a statement on his Twitter account on Saturday
that described him as a “global statesman and deeply committed
internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more
peaceful world”.
The statement added that Annan, who succeeded Boutros Boutros-Ghali as UN
leader, was a “son of Ghana and felt a special responsibility towards
Africa”.
Born in Kumasi, Ghana, on 8 April 1938, Annan joined the UN system in 1962
as an administrative officer with the World Health Organization in Geneva.
Annan later served with the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa,
the UN Emergency Force in Ismailia, the UN high commissioner for refugees
in Geneva and in several senior posts at its headquarters in New York.
Before becoming secretary general, he was under-secretary general for
peacekeeping and also served as special representative of the secretary
general to the former Yugoslavia between 1995 and 1996.
As head of UN peacekeeping operations, Annan was criticised for the body’s
failure to halt the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s.