At 15:14 hours on Saturday, Kofi Annan twitter account tweeted of sad demise of the former United Nations Secretary General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan after his short illness. He died at the age of 80.
The tweet says, “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.
“His wife Nane and their children Ama, Kojo and Nina were by his side during his last days,” it said.
The current UN chief Antonio Guterres, shared his deep sorrow on the former Secretary General’s death. He called him “a guiding force for good”. He also said, Like so many, I was proud to call Kofi Annan a good friend and mentor.” as reported by Telegraph.
Kofi Annan was born in Ghana and lived in Switzerland. He was the son of an executive of a European trading company, the United Africa company, a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever.
He was a career diplomat who is well-known for raising the world body’s profile in global politics while serving as UN chief for two terms i.e. from 1997 to 2006. In the year 2001, he was awarded the Peace Prize for having revitalized the UN and for having given the priority to human rights. The Nobel Committee also recognized his commitment to the struggle to containing the spread of HIV in Africa and his declared opposition to international terrorism.
Theresa May also took to twitter to pay tribute to him by calling him “great leader and reformer”.
