(FILES) In this file photo taken on September 5, 2016 Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan (L) delivers his address while Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi (R) listens during their meeting at the National Reconciliation and Peace Centre in Yangon with the multi sector advisory body to find lasting solution to Myanmar's stateless Rohingya Muslims.
Former United Nations Secretary General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan has died on August 18, 2018 after a short illness at the age of 80, his foundation announced. "It is with immense sadness that the Annan family and the Kofi Annan Foundation announce that Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate, passed away peacefully on Saturday 18th August after a short illness," the foundation said in a statement. / AFP PHOTO / ROMEO GACAD
Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general of the United Nations, has died in Switzerland after a short illness. He was 80.
The Nobel peace laureate died in hospital in Bern early today with his close family by his side, according to the Kofi Annan Foundation.
Mr Annan spent almost his entire career working for the UN, serving as the world’s top diplomat for two terms between 1997 and 2006. Born in 1938 in Ghana, he was the first black African to take up the position.
“Kofi Annan was a guiding force for good,” said Antonio Guterres, the current UN secretary-general. “He rose through the ranks to lead the organisation into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination.”
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