Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan dies

Sunday, 19/08/2018 21:18
Kofi Annan, one of the world's most celebrated diplomats and a charismatic symbol of the United Nations, has died at age 80.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. (Photo: VNA)

The Ghanaian diplomat passed away at a hospital in the Swiss capital, Bern, on Saturday after a "short illness", his foundation said in a statement.

Annan served as the seventh UN chief for almost a decade, from 1997 to 2006. Having joined in 1962, he was the first staffer to take over the top UN job and the first hailing from sub-Sahara Africa.

In 2001, he received the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the UN, lauded for "bringing new life to the organization".

Born in Kumasi, the capital city of Ghana's Ashanti region, on April 8th 1938, Annan was a son of an executive of a European trading company.

He became fluent in English, French and several African languages, attending an elite boarding school and the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. He finished his undergraduate work in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1961. From there he went to Geneva, where he began his graduate studies in international affairs and launched his UN career./.

 

Compiled by BTA

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